What if
by SeireiteiFantasy
Summary: Did you ever wonder how life would be when something went different? How would life be if you met an another person, instead of the person you was supposed to meet? That's what this fanfic's going about!
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfic. I don't know how I came up with the idea, so don't ask me. I wrote this school during the school breaks, boring lessons (only when the teachers weren't paying attention of course.), and in the evenings. During the evenings I'm not that alert, so maybe there are a lot spelling and grammar mistakes in it. English is also not my first language, so that doesn't make it easier. But I hope you still enjoy it!

**WARNING: It has spoilers in it from the whole manga, because I write parallel to the normal storyline! Maybe there are some differences, but there are also spoilers from chapter 416(and up) in the first chapter. If you don't want any spoilers, don't read this fanfic until you're up-to-date!**

Maybe this warning is a bit overdone, but now you can't blame me anymore if you read any spoilers. ^-^

Rated "T" for safety.

* * *

_Did you ever wonder how life would be  
when something went different?  
How would life be if you made an another decision?  
How would life be if you met an another person,  
instead of the person you was supposed to meet?  
How would life be if Rangiku met Shūhei while starving to death,  
instead of Gin?_

_This fanfic is going about what could happen if this happened._

* * *

Shūhei was wandering about in the Rukongai Districts. He couldn't sleep, so he decided to take a walk. It was very dark and there weren't any clouds, so you could see the stars very clearly. While walking in the Rukongai Districts, his mind was somewhere else.

It was a while ago now that Aizen, Gin and T ōsen left the Soul Society. When Gin left the Soul Society, he thought he would finally make a change with Rangiku.

But he was wrong.

She refused to love anyone else than Gin, even after he betrayed her and the whole Soul Society.

He sighed. Sometimes life was so unfair. Gin didn't deserve such a nice and pretty girl. She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Gin was just a creep, with his eternal smile and slitted eyes. Rangiku and Gin were like the sun and the moon, meant to be together, but they couldn't reach each other.

He sighed again and looked up sky. What if hé found Rangiku starving to death instead of Gin? Would she love him instead? Or would she still love that fox faced bastard?

But then something caught his eye.

A beautiful falling star brightened up the pitch black sky, granting everyone who saw him, a wish. Shūhei was one of them, so he quickly wished his wish. His wish that hé saved Rangiku when she was young and starving to death, and definitely nót Gin.

He shrugged, knowing his wish would never be granted, and walked back to the ninth squad barracks.

* * *

Young Shūhei was walking through a desert-like field on his way home. He just went to the market to buy some food for the coming winter, because he was one of the few people who needed food to survive. He heard from someone that meant he had spiritual powers, just like all the Shinigami did. When he was old enough, he wanted to enter the Shinigami academy.

If he got that old.

He got his money to buy food by working at the market. But the fellow who gave him the money for his work, died yesterday due to an hollow attack. Now he needed another way to earn money.

While thinking about how he would survive, he saw something lying on the ground, surrounded by trees and rocks, like someone wanted to hide it. He also saw some Shinigami standing next to it. Shūhei immediately saw that the one with the glasses was the boss.  
He carefully came some nearer to the girl, and saw a Shinigami with brown hair and glasses putting something in the hands of one of the other Shinigami before leaving the girl alone. "That one is the boss, he's the one I have to-" he thought before he heard the girl groan. He quickly ran to her side and offered her some food of the pile he was carrying.

"Eat," he said.

"If you can collapse due to hunger you must have spiritual powers too."

The girl opened her big, grey eyes.

"You too?" she asked weakly.

Shūhei nodded. "Yes, me too. I'm Hisagi Shūhei."

The girl looked to him like she expected someone else, but shrugged after a few seconds.

"Strange..." she said.

Shūhei smiled to the small girl. "Come on, let's go to my house before you collapse again."

The girl nodded and with some help from Shūhei she got on her feet. Leaning on him she walked next to him on his way home.  
While walking they passed a boy who was also carrying food. He had silver hair, slitted eyes and a big smile on his face. They didn't say anything to each other, but when Shūhei looked over his shoulder, he saw the boy standing next to the place where he found the girl. He wasn't smiling anymore and looking to the girl who was walking next to him.

Shūhei dropped the food in the kitchen and stocked it away. The girl was standing next to him, not knowing what to do or to say.

"Hey, I forgot to ask. What's your name?"

The girl smiled a bit nervous. "Rangiku, Matsumoto Rangiku."

Shūhei nodded slowly while looking at the girl in front of him.

"A beautiful name, just like you are," he said, smiling to her.

It wasn't a lie.  
She got big, silver eyes, quite long strawberry hair and a beauty spot on her right cheek, near her perfect shaped mouth.

"What happened? It looked like you was knocked down by those guys?" he asked carefully.

She shrugged. "Don't know. First I was walking through that desert, and the other moment I woke up with you by my side. I can tell what I remember from the other days of my life, but I don't think you want to hear it. No one ever listened to me."

She looked to the door, like she wanted to go. "I'll better go so I won't bother you...".

She slowly walked away, but Shūhei grabbed her hand. "No, please, stay! I don't know if you want to, but you can stay with me if you want. I've been lonely for ages. My mother died when I was young and I never knew my father."

A little smile appeared on her face. "Okay, if you want so. I was also living on my own before I met you. I really hated it."

She sat down on the ground and Shūhei sat next to her.

"My mother also died when I was young, and I also didn't know my father. The only thing I remembered from her is her face when I said I was hungry. It was a mix of fear and proud. She was proud to give birth to a soul with spiritual powers, but also afraid. Afraid she couldn't feed me. When my mother died due to illness, I kept on living in our house, all alone. But when I went outside for some food yesterday, I was probably knocked down by those guys."

She smiled. "Thank you that you saved me and that I can stay with you..."

Shūhei sighed, turning a bit red in the face. "Well, I just couldn't let you die, so I just saved you, anyone would do that."

The small girl next to him yawned. "I think I should get a bit of sleep, I didn't sleep last night because I heard hollows outside my home."

Shūhei nodded. "I understand. You can sleep in my bed, I'll stay awake and protect you from any hollow that comes near!".

Rangiku smiled. "Thank you, Shūhei... "

The next day Shūhei decided to leave early. He had to go to the market to get some extra food for Rangiku. He walked down the road and passed the place where he first met Rangiku.

There was someone else standing there. It was the same boy he saw when he saved Rangiku.  
He still had silver hair and slitted eyes, but something was different. Back then, the boy was smiling happily. But now the his smile was gone, and he was looking very sad.

"Hey, you!" the boy said.

Shūhei looked up. "Huh? What's wrong?".

The boy frowned. "I saw ya yesterday at the market, why are ya goin' again?"

Shūhei looked to his face. Was is safe to tell him he was going to get some food for a girl who was all alone at home at the moment? Pretty young girls were often abused, even in the safest parts of Rukongai. But the something inside him said it was safe to tell him.

"I met a girl yesterday, and we decided to stay together. But now I don't have enough food for the coming winter for both of us. So that's why I'm going again."

The look on the boy's face became even worse.

"Yeah, my Rangiku-chan..." he said sadly.

Shūhei frowned. Why did this boy know her name? And why did he say MY Rangiku-chan?

The boy gave him some food of the pile he was carrying.

"Here, some dried persimmon. Then you don't have to go all the way to the market again. I'm sure she'll love it!"

Before Shūhei could ask anything, he vanished without a word. Shūhei wasn't sure, but it looked like the boy was crying.

But then he heard someone screaming his name.  
When he turned around he saw Rangiku running towards him. She was near crying, out of breath and running as fast as she could.

"Shūhei! Please, don't leave me! I don't want to be alone again!"

Shūhei caught the crying girl with his free arm. "Hey, I didn't want to leave you, I just wanted to go to the market. But I got some food from a boy who... ehm... had some leftovers."

He squeezed her shoulder softly. "Hey, I really wanted to tell you, but when I entered the room you were sleeping so nicely so I decided not to wake you up...".

After standing there for a while Rangiku shivered due to the cold wind. Shūhei noticed this and released her.

"Come on, let's go home. I'll make you some tea to warm up."

They walked back to their little house and Shūhei quickly made some tea. They also decided to try a bit from the food of the boy. Rangiku swallowed a mouthful of dried persimmons.

"These are really great! Can't we get a tree of this ourselves?"

Shūhei laughed. "Well, this isn't that bad. I ate this once before at the birthday of my mother..."

He looked at Rangiku curiously. "Hey, when is your birthday, Rangiku?".

Rangiku shrugged. "I don't know, I never really counted days until I met you. "

"..."

Shūhei looked a bit hard while searching for a solution.

"Then... the day you met me is your birthday. How about that, Rangiku?".

Rangiku looked up from her tea, looking very surprised.

"But.. But isn't it supposed to be your real date of birth?" she asked a bit puzzled.

Shūhei shrugged. "Well, no one actually remembers the exact date of birth. You just have to believe the date that someone you trust tells you. It doesn't really matter if it's real. The fact that you know your birthday is already a sign of happiness."

Rangiku giggled. "Wow, that's a deep thought. But it's true. It doesn't really have to be the exact date, just the fact that you've been born is already a beautiful thing.".

She sighed and smiled happily. "You're so sweet, Shūhei! I really can't imagine a life without you anymore!"

Shūhei was smiling back to the happy girl when something caught his eye. Something silver. That boy again? Rangiku saw the worried look on his face.

"What's wrong, Shūhei?" she asked worried.

Shūhei shook his head while still looking to the little silver spot which disappeared into the woods. "Nothing, Rangiku, nothing..."

* * *

Whoo! My first chapter! I hope it isn't too short... I've written a great part of the story already in a notebook, so I only have to type it out in Document Manager. I hope I can upload a new chapter soon! And don't worry GinxRan-fans, GinxRan is also my favourite couple!

*****UPDATE*****

**First, there weren't any breaklines in this story. I've added them now, so it should be easier to read now! **

Thank you so much for reading anyone!

I would like to hear your opinions, so please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Well everyone, here´s my second chapter. I never thought my story would get this many hits and (re)views! (I never know what to post here, so most of the time I just say something and hope it's okay). Well, there are a more few past-chapters before I'm going to follow the actual storyline.

Because I thought the previous chapter was a bit hard to read (because I didn't use very much enters), I wrote this another way with more enters. Please also say in your review if you find this easier to read or not, so I know if I should keep it this way or change it back to chapter 1-style!

**Thank you, protovy, crazyfreakazoid and Denidene for reviewing!**

* * *

Young Rangiku, Shūhei and some others were running through the were playing eternal tag, while laughing and calling each other names. But Rangiku suddenly stopped running. "Shūhei, I don't feel good. It's like there's a huge pressure in the air or something..." Shūhei stopped running and looked around.

"Yeah, I also felt it for aAAAAAH!"

Shūhei screamed. The others also screamed. In front of them was standing a huge hollow. Not just a normal sized hollow wich looked very big for small childeren, but a really big one. It had six legs and an enourmous tail and neck. He threw his head in the air and howled loud. Shūhei stared to the hollow, frightend to death.

_'If we don't run, we'll die!' _he thought. The hollow took a step to the frightened childeren. _'We have to run! But I can't scream and my legs won't move! But-! If we don't run, we'll die, just like those other childeren. And Rangiku can't die!'. _The hollow took another step and howled again. His huge body made the ground shake. He took a deep breath, it was now or never.

"Run! Run for it! Get going!" he screamed.

He grabbed Rangiku's hand and started running. Rangiku quikly ran along and the others followed. The huge hollow came running after them, making the ground shake even more.

"Hurry! Hurry up and run!" he screamed while gaining some more speed.

He knew they wouldn't make it, but Rangiku just couldn't die. Then he saw a stick lying on the ground. He released Rangiku and grabbed the stick.

"Run, Rangiku, I'll protect you!" he screamed.

Rangiku stopped and looked to Shūhei with her eyes big of fear.

"But you'll die, Shūhei!"

Shūhei tightened his grip on the stick. "But you won't, and that's the most important!"

She ran to his side and also grabbed a stick.

"I'm NOT going to leave you, Shūhei! We stick together like birds of a feather! You're the only one I care about in my life, I can't live all alone again!".

Two tentacles came out of the monster and moved to Shūhei and Rangiku. Shūhei and Rangiku both tried to slam the tentacle away, but it didn't work at all. Their friends stopped running and looked at their attempts to stop the hollow.

"What are you doing? Run already!" Shūhei screamed. "Hurry up and run for it!"

The frightened friends nodded and quickly started running again.

Shūhei and Rangiku were still fighting against a tentacle when another two tentacles came out of the hollow. They grabbed Shūhei and Rangiku and lift them up in the air.

"Rangiku!" Shūhei screamed.

Rangiku tried to escape but the tentacle was strongly wrapped around her, so she couldn't escape.  
The hollow waved the two childeren through the air like they were a sort of toy. Rangiku kept screaming and Shūhei also couldn't keep his mouth closed.  
But then he saw something moving on the ground, out of the corner of his eye. He saw men in black clothes with white coats. Shinigami!  
They could defeat the hollow, or at least save Rangiku!

The big Shinigami in the front of the group, probably the captain, drew his sword. All the others also draw their swords and jumped at the hollow. They all started to cut the hollow on different places. The hollow went mad and screamed when he felt the swords hit him. He waved his tentacles wildly through the air and Rangiku and Shūhei both screamed. The hollow opened it huge mouth and lifted the tentacle with Shūhei to his mouth.

"SHŪHEI!" Rangiku screamed.

Shūhei stopped screaming and saw the opened mouth coming closer and closer. He closed his eyes and felt tears spatting away. _'I'm sorry, Rangiku...' _he thought. But then a sword flashed and cut of the tentacle. Shūhei fell on the ground, still being wrapped in the tentacle.

When he hit the ground, he was sent out of the tentacle and shove a few feet further over the ground. A moment later, Rangiku landed next to him. Shūhei looked up and saw the huge shinigami standing before him. He raised his head and looked at the huge man in front of him. The shinigami looked down at him and smiled. Shūhei stood up from the ground, still looking at the shinigami.

"Hey, get outta here." the shinigami said. "You don't want to die, dou you?"

Shūhei quickly ran away to Rangiku and sat down next to her.

"Rangiku, are you okay?" he asked worried.

Rangiku opened her eyes. "Yeah, sort of."

The huge hollow howled again and stamped on the ground with his enourmous leg. The shinigami who stood there just a second ago, could just manage to get away in time.

"Pull back, guys!" the big shinigami yelled.

"Yes, sir!" the group answered.

They jumped away and left the big shinigami alone, in front of the hollow. Rangiku crept some closer to him and put her arms around him. "

I'm afraid, Shūhei," she said trembling.

Shūhei softly stroked her hair while pulling her some closer to him.

"You don't have to be afraid anymore, Rangiku. It's all over, we're saved. he'll defeat the hollow, I'm sure! Look at his cloak. It's the one of a captain. He'll defeat the hollow, I'm sure! Maybe he'll have a tough time doing it, but he'll do it!"  
The hollow howled again when the big shinigami pointed his sword at the hollow. He drew his sword back and draw a half of a circle in the air. Wind started to blow at his feet.

"Send 'em flying." the shinigami said. The wind increased and made something wich looked like a small tornado around his sword.

"Tachikaze!" the shinigami said. He pointed his sword at the hollow.

"It's a zanpakutō!" Shūhei whispered exited. "Now he'll defeat that hollow for sure!"

The small tornado around the zanpakutō increased it's speed and went even faster. Then the wind suddenly stopped, but the blade of the zanpakutō was shining brightly. The shinigami swung his zanpakutō in the direction of the hollow, and strings came out of the blade. One of the strings fastened himself around the hollow's throat, and the other two around the legs. Suddenly, the strings exploded and the head and some legs of the hollow were cut off the body. The head and the body of the hollow hit the ground with a huge bang wich made the ground shake. Rangiku closed her eyes and pressed herself some closer to Shūhei.

The huge shinigami put his zanpakutō back in the sheath and the group of other shinigamis landed next to him.

"Is everyone allright?" the big shinigami asked.

The group nodded. "Yes, sir!" they said.

* * *

Well, everyone, my second chapter. The next one will be sooner, I promise. I already wrote a bit of it in Document Manager, so it won't take long.

Next chapter:

The end of the part about the hollow attack. I don't know if this will take another chapter or that I can add some more things like Rangiku's first birthday. I also promise a piece about the Shinō Acedemy (name of the shinigami acedemy) and that hollow attack.

Now I mind this, Shūhei gets often attacked by a hollow which he can't handle. I mean, as a shinigami it's not that hard to defeat a hollow, but when he was a kid without shinigami powers he gets attacked. And when he's just a mere student he gets attacked by a hollow who's too powerfull for him... Well, maybe Shūhei is attractive for hollows or something.

I think I'm craptalking about Shūhei being attacked by hollows... :? Sorry guys!

See ya next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry guys, my computer got a virus, so I couldn't update a new chapter anymore... But the problem is solved, so I'm back! Thank you for waiting, everyone!

In this chapter I'll write the last bit about the hollow attack. I don't know what to say anymore, so after the thanks the story will resume!

**Thank you for reviewing Denidene, protovy, Mary Akataki**** and crazyfreakazoid****!**

* * *

Shūhei looked at the shinigami with his eyes big of fear. He acted big in front of Rangiku, because she needed someone to rely on. But he also was afraid of not being saved, yet. But when he saw the shinigami defeat the hollow so easily, something inside him snapped in two. He felt a little, helpless child again, wich needed adults to survive. He couldn't help it and started to cry. Rangiku looked to the boy who protected her with his life and she tried to cheer him up.

"Hey, Shūhei, don't cry, everything is alright now..."

Then the big shinigami walked towards them. "Hey, why are you crying?" he said. "You're still alive, so be happy."

When Shūhei didn't stop crying, his face went dark.

"Smile!"

"Take it easy, captain." one of the shinigami said.

The big shinigami walked towards Shūhei. "I am." he said while grabbing Shūhei's arm.

He lifted Shūhei in the air and put him on his feet.

"C'mon, stand up, kids."

Rangiku also scrambled up on her feet and stood next to Shūhei. Shūhei was just sobbing when Rangiku took his hand and squeezed it softly.

"What's your name?" the big shinigami asked.

"H-Hisagi Shūhei" Shūhei answered sobbing.

"Shūhei, huh? That's a good, tough name. Stop crying!" he added irritated.

Shūhei just couldn't stop crying and cried even more. Rangiku put her arm around Shūhei's shoulders.

"Please, calm down, Shū-" she started, but she was interrupted by the big shinigami.

"Why are you crying even more?" he said. "I said to stop crying!". He scratched his head irritated. "Man, what a pain."

A loud, girlish voice burst through Shūhei's crying.

"Kensei~!" she screamed.

The big shinigami looked up and a small girl with green her running towards him.

"Mashiro? Were where you while we were fighting?" he said irritated.

She ignored his question completely. "I found this in the underbrush over there."

She lifted a shinigami outfit in the air. "Look! It's our uniform!"

Everyone looked shocked at the uniform in her hands.

"There's a whole bunch of them over there." she said. "Ten whole sets."

"Our shinigami uniforms... And ten of them?" the big shinigami said

One of the shinigami behind him looked at his captain. "Captain, does this mean...?"

The small girl looked over the shoulder of the big shinigami. "Hey, hey! What's so special about there being ten of them? C'mon!"

The look on her captain's face became even worse.

"You imbecile!" he said. "That's how many people we put on our search team!".

The girl looked surprised to the clothes on the ground. "Huh? But it looks all they did was get nekkid over there."

"How could they take of their clothes without removing their obi first?" he said. "And how do you take off your socks while still wearing sandals?"

The small girl looked puzzled at the uniforms, trying to understand how this was possible. This was too hard for her, so she shut up.

The big shinigami looked around to a shinigami with long, brown hair.

"Eishima!" he yelled.

"Sir!".

"Contact the central command. We've suffered our first Shinigami casualties in the missing souls case."

Eishima nodded. "Yes, sir.".

The big shinigami looked at a shinigami with black hair wich he wore in a high ponytail on the back of his head.

"Toudou."

"Sir!"

"There's a possibillity that this is some sort of strange virus that decomposes souls. Have someone from the 12th Squad's research squad get over here!" the big shinigami said.

Toudou nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Kasaki!" the big shinigami yelled.

A bald shinigami reacted. "Sir!"

"Have everyone we left on alert at base bring over some tents! We're going to spend the night on guard out here!"

Kasaki nodded. "Yes, sir!"

The big shinigami was still looking very troubled.

"If the enemy is after shinigami, then it will eventually attack Seireitei. " he said. "But we won't let them touch it. We'll stop them here!"

All the shinigami nodded. "Yes, sir!"

"Go!" the big shinigami yelled.

Every shinigami left, but one shinigami was still there. He had a mask on and black hair wich pointed in the air.

"Captain, what about me?"

The big shinigami turned around, ready to walk away.

"I'm going to investigate the area, you come with me."

He turned his head to Shūhei and Rangiku.

"Kids, hurry up and go home already! Get home before sunset!"

Shūhei wasn't crying anymore, and he looked up to the big shinigami.

"Got that?" the big shinigami asked.

He turned around to the masked shinigami, and his robes fell partly open, revealing a tattoo. A huge 69 could be seen on the chest.

Shūhei gazed to the tattoo of the man who saved his and Rangiku's life. 69 was going to be his favourite number, the number who saved him. If he was big enough, he would also take a 69-tattoo! He watched the shinigami walk away, untill Rangiku pulled his sleeve.

"Ehm... Shūhei? Shouldn't we go home now like he said?"

Shūhei woke up from his trance. "Oh, ehm, yeah, ofcourse, sorry."

Rangiku poked him playfully in the chest.

"Hey, Shūhei, are you still there? Or are you walking next to that shinigami over there?" she giggled. "Jeez', I never saw someone looking at someone else like that. He saved our lives, but he isn't god. Or do you want to create a religion for him? The 69-religion?"

Shūhei grinned. "Well, he is a god... A Death God. But no, I'm not going to create a religion. Where's your sense? Did that hollow take it from you?"

Rangiku gave him a really offended look. "Well, if it took my sense, it also took your humor."

Shūhei laughed at the little strawberry haired girl. "Come on, let's go home!"

Rangiku jumped at Shūhei so he was pushed down on the ground. She laughed at him and ran away. "You'll never catch me!"

Shūhei stood up from the ground and brushed some dirt of his kimono.

"Well, just forget it! I'll catch you within a minute!" he laughed, and he ran after her.

They both didn't see the lonely silhouette in the shadows of the trees...

* * *

It was a bit irritating to write this Yes, sir-s, but I don't really know how to say it. Sorry if you found this irritating!

Oh, and I love poking, it's such a funny word! ^-^

I poke, I poked, I was poking, I have poked, I'm going to poke, etc...

This is the end of the hollow attack-flashback. I'll try to get Gin in the next chapter, but I'm not sure if this is going to happen. You'll see, you'll see...


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everyone!

I've looked up information about the persimmon tree for this chapter, because I can't stand it when things like this are wrong. I hope you enjoy this information about the persimmon tree from the internet! And the main story, of course, that's more important...

**Thank you for reviewing Denidene, protovy, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo ****and ****crazyfreakazoid****!**

**

* * *

**Rangiku woke up with a very happy feeling. First, she didn't know why she was this happy, but then she remembered. It was precisely one year ago that she met Shūhei for the first time. And Shūhei said this would be her birthday, so this was going to be her first, real birthday. She decided to take a walk first before waking up Shūhei. He went to bed very late yesterday, because he wanted to prepare some things for her birthday. She walked outside the small hut and tripped over something which was lying in the doorway.

"Ouch!" she yelled.

She looked at the thing in the doorway. It was a small parcel with a note on it was lying at her feet. She scrambled up and picked up the parcel. She read the note on it.

"For.. my.. Ran-chan..." she read frowning. "This isn't Shūhei's handwriting, so from who is this?"

She shrugged and opened the parcel. When she removed the paper, she was holding a beautiful necklace. It was a simple one, but yet so beautiful...

Shūhei came out of their little hut, rubbing his eyes.

"Good morning, Rangiku, and a happy birthday and hey-! What's that? Where did you get that?"

Rangiku shrugged. "Dunno, it was lying here in the doorway..."

Shūhei frowned and took over the necklace from her. He freaked out when he saw the necklace in his hands. In the normal history, she was supposed to get this from Gin. But she also got it in this history? Rangiku saw him looking very hard at the necklace.

"Something wrong with it?" she asked worried.

Shūhei decided not to worry her, so he shook his head.

"No, it looks safe, so I got no reasons why you can't wear it. It's a really beautiful necklace and I'm sure it really suits you!"

Rangiku smiled happily.

"Okay, if you say so!"

Shūhei also smiled. If she was happy, he couldn't help but be happy too. He put the necklace around her neck and fastened it there.

"Well, after this mysterious present from that mysterious person, I guess it's time for breakfast."

Rangiku nodded happily. Shūhei went into the hut again, and came out with a basket full off...

"Dried persimmon! They're my favourites!"

Shūhei smiled back at the small girl. "That's why I bought them."

Rangiku took one of the dried persimmons out of the basket and tasted it carefully.

"They're so sweet... Where did you get them?"

Shūhei put the basket down on the ground.

"Well, these are just from the market. But your next birthday they won't be from the market any more, I promise!"

Rangiku frowned. "Why not? They're pretty good, why should you get them somewhere else?"

Shūhei stood up and reached his hand out to her.

"Just follow me, I'll show you!"

Rangiku stuffed the rest of the dried persimmon in her mouth and took Shūhei's hand.

"Owkwey"

Shūhei laughed and pulled her on her feet.

"Don't talk with a full mouth!"

Rangiku shrugged.

"Whagewver..."

She followed Shūhei to the little piece of grass behind their house. They always said it was their garden, so last spring she planted some flowers there. But it was already starting to get autumn, so most of her flowers were dead. But in the middle of the flowers was a plant she didn't recognize. Shūhei walked towards the small tree.

"Well, you have to wait a while before it bears fruit, because it's just a small tree, but I guess we can make our own dried persimmons next year!"

Rangiku looked at Shūhei with big eyes of joy.

"Is this a persimmon tree?"

Rangiku looked down at the small tree at their feet.

"Thank you so much, Shūhei! I'm going to take care of it until it's the best persimmon tree in the world!"

Shūhei grinned.

"Well, I'm glad you like it. I barely slept last night because I wanted to plant this tree without you noticing it."

Rangiku happy look changed into a very worried look.

"You haven't slept because of me? Oh, Shūhei, you mustn't do that, I'm not worth it..."

Shūhei hugged the small, worried girl.

"Well, firstly, I háve slept, but only less than I normal do. And secondly, you áre worth it! You're the one I'm living for, you're the most important person in my life!"

Rangiku went all red in the face.

"So you're never going to leave me, Shūhei?"

Shūhei shook his head.

"Never, Rangiku. Why would I leave you? Just as I said, you're the most important person in my life, so I won't leave you."

Rangiku smiled happily and hugged Shūhei.

"Thank you so much, Shūhei!"

Shūhei stroked Rangiku's beautiful, strawberry coloured hair.

"And by the way, where did you get the idea I should leave you?"

Rangiku shrugged.

"Dunno, I just got a strange feeling you might leave me. But that feeling is gone now. Thank you Shūhei, for staying with me..."

Shūhei hugged her some tighter.

"You're welcome."

They both didn't see the lonely silhouette between the trees of the nearby forest, who silently watched them walk away to their hut...


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everyone, here is the next chapter!

Sorry it took so long, but I had some difficulties about how the entrance exam for the Shinigami academy would go. But I made up the missing pieces, so here you are!

We take a little jump in time. Shūhei is about to do the exam for the Shinō Academy (the Shinigami academy), but Rangiku isn't, because Shūhei doesn't want to. While Rangiku is waiting, a mysterious person comes near...

Yes, guys, Gin makes his entrance to Rangiku in this chapter! Enjoy!

**Thank you for reviewing Denidene, protovy, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo ****and ****crazyfreakazoid****!**

* * *

Rangiku and Shūhei were standing on the steps of the Shinō Academy.

"It isn't fair, you're already allowed to enter, and I still have to wait... Why can't I go with you, I heard you can do the exam at any age... So why?" Rangiku said, nearly crying.

Shūhei sighed and put his hands on her shoulders. He lowered his face so his face was on the same level as Rangiku's.

"We've already discussed this, Rangiku. I won't enter the Shinō Academy today, I always get nervous at exams. And when we know how this exams go, we can practice together. And I'll enter the Academy a year before you do, so I can help you with everything. I heard it's a really difficult education, and you won't make on your own. At least, not alive..." he added grinning.

Rangiku roughly wiped some tears of her face.

"I'm smart enough, there loads of people who did it without any help!"

"But they didn't become a seated officer in the Gotei 13. Didn't we promise each other we would become vice-captains and maybe even captains?"

Rangiku sighed

"Yes, I know, Shūhei, sorry..."

"Good girl. Now, I'm better off for the exam otherwise I'll be too late"

Rangiku hugged him for the last time.

"Good luck, Shūhei. If you pass, I can already enter the Academy next year!"

Shūhei smiled to her and carefully released himself from her grip.

"Thank you, Rangiku, I'll think of you during the exam!"

Rangiku tried to smile, but it became a weak, little smile. She watched Shūhei walking the steps and entering the building. He went into a nearby classroom, and went out of her sight.  
She sighed. She didn't like to be alone. In fact, she hated it.  
She walked to a nearby sakura tree, sat down next to it and carefully closed her eyes. When she heard someone who was walking in her direction, she quickly opened them. She looked around, but didn't saw anyone.

"H-hello? W-who's there?" she said trembling.

A boy stepped out of the shadow of the sakura tree. He couldn't be much older than she was, so he wasn't here to do the exam. She had a feeling she knew him all her life, but she knew she didn't. Then she remembered where she saw the boy before. When Shūhei left her for the first time without a word, she ran after him. When she finally caught him, that boy was also there. It was the boy with the silver hair, the slitted eyes and the big smile. Well, he was supposed to have a big smile. The smile was gone, and it made place for a really sad face.

"Who are you?" Rangiku asked, more curious than scared.

The boy sighed. It sounded so sad, like there wasn't going to be a day on which he could be happy again.

"I'm the one ya're supposed to love..."

A silence fell underneath the sakura tree. Rangiku looked at the boy to see if he was joking, but he looked very serious. And very sad. But why was she supposed to love him? She already got Shūhei, didn't she? So why would she need him?

"Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about... I can't think of a reason why I should love you. I already have Shūhei, he-"

"Is the one who took my place!" said the boy, still sounding sad. "He saved ya when ya was young, didn't he? Well, I was supposed to do that. But it went wrong, he saved you. Now history has changed, but it has to change back. Please, Rangiku, help me with changing history so everything will be alright again and-"

"Then I have to love you? Sorry, I think you're just jealous. And just for the information, your story was lied very badly, you need to think of a more reasonable story..."

The sad look on the face of the boy was now mixed with a very helpless look.

"But, but, what I said was true... Please, Rangiku, believe me, remember yer true history!"

He gently took her hands and squeezed them softly.

"I promise I'll never leave ya without a word again, so please..."

Rangiku tried to release herself from his grip, but she failed to do so. Tears gathered in her eyes.

"Let- Me- Go! I don't care if you leave me with or without a word. Just release me and get lost!"

The strange boy looked very offended, and weakened his grip on Rangiku's hands. Rangiku saw her chance and pulled herself free from his grip. She ran away from him while crying her eyes out.

The boy watched sadly the crying girl leave.

"Rangiku..."

It sounded so sad and desperate. He knew he really ruined his chance. He shouldn't have grabbed Rangiku's hands, but it was an impulse. He didn't like it to see her so cold towards him. He remembered everything she should do. These memories were worthless, false memories about how it should be. But he knew they were true, and some day she would remember everything and everything would be the same again. He just had to wait and let her remember everything.

* * *

In the meantime was Shūhei busy with his exam. He walked into a classroom with a sign with "Entrance Exam" on it. The classroom was more like a dojo than a classroom. There were already people standing in the room, talking and laughing with each other. When Shūhei walked into the room, the doors were shut right behind him.

"Welcome, everyone, at this year's entrance exam." a shinigami said. "I'm Maneki Neko, and I'll guide you through this exam. If you want to pass, the only thing you have to do to pass this exam is to hit your opponent without being hit yourself. Your opponent is one of the shinigami's in this room. You can recognize them by their black uniform and white obi. So, everyone, please line up behind one of the shinigami. If everyone is lined up, this exam starts."

There was some rumbling when everyone started lining up. Shūhei tried to get in front of a line, so Rangiku didn't have to wait that long. After some pushing and pulling was everyone standing in neat, dead straight lines. Shūhei failed in getting at the front and was now standing at the back.

He grinded his teeth, now Rangiku had to wait ages. Why couldn't he just stand at the front? His thoughts were interrupted by Maneki who gave everyone the last instructions.

"Please be silent during the exam for everyone's concentration. When you failed, please leave the room so you won't bother anyone. If you passed, just go through that door over there where you'll get further instructions. Well, good luck everyone, and I hope I'll see you tomorrow at the Academy!"

The first ones stepped to their shinigamis and started with the exam. The lines went down very slow. After a few minutes, Shūhei began to feel a bit restless. Why had hé to stand at the back. Bored, he looked out of the window. He could see Rangiku from here, sitting under the sakura tree while waiting for him. But a few minutes later she got company. It was the strange boy with the silver hair.

Because he didn't have anything better to do, he kept watching them. First it seemed just a little nice chat, but then the boy grabbed Rangiku's hands. Rangiku tried to release herself from his grip, but failed.

"Rangiku!" Shūhei whispered when he saw her pulling herself free and running away crying.

He just got to get to her. He couldn't leave her alone when she needed him so much. This was only a unimportant exam, out there was Rangiku, the one who was the centre of his life. He could live without becoming a shinigami, but he couldn't live without Rangiku. He took a deep breath, and started to run away.

It seemed like a few miles from his row to the door, but in fact he was standing just a couple of feet away from the door. He was breathing heavily when he ran trough the corridor, down the steps and past the strange boy who threatened Rangiku. He wanted to slam the boy in the face, kick him in the stomach and hurt him as much as he hurt Rangiku. But finding Rangiku was more important now, she needed to be comforted. The boy wasn't worth his attention at the moment.

Then he saw Rangiku. She collapsed in a dark corner of a corridor while crying her eyes out. He quickly ran to her side and put an arm around her. He didn't say anything, but just carefully took the crying girl in his arms. When she calmed down a bit, she was able to speak again.

"H-how went your exam?" she asked, still sobbing a bit.

"Well, I ran away for you before I even tried," Shūhei said grinning. "But how are you? Are you feeling okay, aren't you hurt, did he touch you on any places you didn't want to?"

Rangiku also started to smile again. "Nah, I'm okay. He just frightened me. But you didn't even try? Are you so concerned about me?"

Shūhei nodded while lifting the little girl on her feet again. "Yes, I am. I just don't see the point in living without you. Shall we go home? There are still some dried persimmons left..."

Rangiku smiled happily. "Yeah, let's go, I'm quite hungry!" she said. She was frolicing around him while taking his hand and trying to pull him with her.

Shūhei laughed, happy to see her happy again. "Okay, let's go. But don't eat everything on your own again. The last time you ate everything without leaving anything for me."

"I promise!" Rangiku laughed happily.

They both didn't see the lonely silhouette a few feet away from the dark corner. It was the strange boy. He clenched his teeth. "Why, just why needed history to change? And why didn't I realise you were so important from me? And why does it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'till it's gone..."

* * *

Well, after a long messing about the entrance exam, I finally did it!

And yes, the last sentence of this chapter comes from a song. It's called "**Big Yellow Taxi**" by **Counting Crows.**

So credits for Counting crows for the last sentence!

See ya 'till the next chapter!

P.S.: I'm still surprised about how many people like this story!


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone, here's the next chapter!

Shūhei failed the next exam too, because he was nervous, but the third time he tried, he finally succeeded. Now he's going to his first lesson of the Shinigami Academy. When he's Rangiku's alone again.

Enjoy!

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo and crazyfreakazoid.**

**P.s.: WARNING! DRAMA-ALERT, DRAMA-ALERT!**

* * *

Rangiku woke up because of the sounds of birds. Shūhei was just putting on his new uniform: a blue hakama and shitagi (under shirt), plus a white kosode(shirt) with blue stripes. Rangiku yawned and then she jumped out of her bed.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" she asked, a bit irritated. "You can't leave without me noticing it!"

Shūhei smiled. "I wasn't going to leave you without waking you up! But you were just sleeping so peacefully, I couldn't get myself to waking you up..."

Rangiku gave him a small hug. "Then it's okay! Did you already have breakfast? Do you need a bento?"

Shūhei shook his head. "I didn't have breakfast, yet, and I can make my bento myself."

He walked to the kitchen and started preparing breakfast. Rangiku ran after him and helped him with making breakfast. Then she pulled the bento out of his hands, and started preparing it.

"Hey!" Shūhei said laughing. "I can do it myself!"

Rangiku pointed her tongue at him and continued with his bento. Shūhei tried to get his bento back until they were fighting and laughing, while the rice was flowing into the air. Exhausted, they fell down next to each other.

"Okay, you win, you can make my bento..." Shūhei said, still laughing. "But don't make it a heart-shaped one, I won't make a good first impression if you do that..."

"Yeah, I know..." Rangiku said while picking some rice out of Shūhei's hair. "But you also won't make a good first impression with rice in your hair..."

Shūhei grinned and started tickeling her. He tickled her until she couldn't stop laughing and was begging him to stop.

"Well," Rangiku said, catching her breath. "I'll start preparing your bento."

She stood up from the floor and walked back into the kitchen.

Shūhei lifted himself a bit up from the floor, looking at Rangiku who was busy in the little kitchen of their hut. It felt like they were together for ages, but it were only a few years. All the things they did, all the things they saw... He just couldn't live without her any more.  
If he closed his eyes, and thought hardly, he could remember how it should be. About him, being all alone. And about Rangiku, being together with Gin, who would leave her all the time without telling her where he was going. She really hated that. But now she was happily living with him, he was just a better friend than Gin. She never shed a tear in all the time they were together.

Rangiku walked towards him, carrying his breakfast and his bento. "You'll need to eat breakfast, otherwise you can't pay attention during the classes."

She but his breakfast in front of him, together with his bento, and sighed.

"Why couldn't we enter the academy together? I want to be in the same class as you..." she sighed unhappily.

Shūhei sighed and played with the food on his plate before answering.

"I've already explained that a thousand times, Rangiku! It's because-"

"I'm stupid and can't do the academy on my own, so you can help me because you're in the next year. And you can do the academy on your own because you're só smart..." Rangiku finished his sentence, starting to get a bit angry.

She folded her arms and walked towards the door. She stood in the doorway and looked out of the house, into the nearby forests. There were other people out of this district in blue and red hakamas who started walking in the direction of the Shinigami Academy. They were all together. They didn't have someone who cared about you too much so you couldn't make your own decisions. Maybe she was glad she wasn't in the same year, he would only make things worse. She sighed. She really loved Shūhei, but he just cared too much about her.

Shūhei looked at the girl in the doorway. She looked very insulted by his decisions, but also slightly disappointed. He sighed, stood up and walked towards Rangiku who was near crying. He put his arms around her and placed his chin on top of her head.

"Maybe you're right..." he admitted. "You're not such a dumbo as I am. It took me tree times to pass the exam, and I bet you'll do it at once! You don't need my help... I'm sorry, Rangiku, for undervaluing you..."

Rangiku sighed and turned herself back to him, and hugged him back. She hugged him tighter than she ever did before.

"I just don't want to be alone all the time. Before I met you, there wasn't anything else in my life but the urge to keep on existing, to keep on surviving every day. I think I would rather die back then, instead of keeping on living, but I was afraid of death. But after I met you, there also came joy in my life. A happiness from which I didn't even know it existed. And I also met love, together with you. And when you're at the academy, I'm all alone at home. Without happiness, without joy and without love. I really don't care about not being in the same grade as you. I just don't ever want to be all alone again..."

Shūhei felt some tears gathering in his eyes. The thought of a young, small Rangiku, all alone, waiting for the moment when she died, really made him cry. He hugged the girl back.

"But you must know I'll never ever réally leave you!" he said, his voice starting to sound a bit weird from his tears. "Definitely not after your speech a few seconds ago!"

Rangiku looked up to his crying face, right into his dark, brown eyes which were drowning in his tears. She felt his tears falling upon her face and tasted the saltness of them.

"Why are you crying? I know you'll never leave me, and I don't want to be dead when I'm all alone anymore, 'cause I know you'll come back. So just go to the academy and show them you don't have to be a total dung head only because you failed twice!"

Shūhei gave her a watery smile.

"Thanks, Ran-chan, I'll remember that!" he whispered in her ear while hugging her again.

And then he did something he never ever did before. He always hugged her when he wanted to show he really cared about her, because a hug would say more than hundred comforting words. But she was just so sweet and lovely he just couldn't resist is any more:

He kissed her.

Nothing special, just a little kiss on the cheek, but enough to make them both feel like they were in heaven.

"I must go now, Rangiku-chan, otherwise I'll be too late." he whispered. "And I can't have that happening on my first day!"

Then he grabbed his bento and left their little house.

"Bye, Rangiku-chan, see you this afternoon! I'll tell you everything!"

Rangiku, still a bit off-road because of the kiss, waved to Shūhei.

"Bye! Have a nice day!"

They both didn't see the lonely silhouette in the shadows of the nearby trees, who was clenching his hands into a fist so forcefully his knuckles were turning white.

* * *

Well, that was the sixth chapter already!

There was a little bit more drama than I expected, but I hope it's still okay. I'll try to make the next chapter some more fun/normal!

For the next chapter...

I think I'm going to let Gin trying to get some closer when Rangiku is alone at home... ^-^

According to Bleach wikia (who got it from Bleach Official Bootleg) Gin and Rangiku entered the Shinigami Academy together. I'll keep this in my fanfic, so that's going to be fun (I think)! This is also the reason why I didn't want Shūhei and Rangiku in the same year, because Shūhei would only protect Rangiku against Gin. Then I can't make any more scenes with Gin trying to get near Rangiku, because Shūhei would be standing in his way. Now, his way is cleared! *Mhuhahahahaaa!*


	7. Chapter 7

Hey eveyone,

Here's the next chapter! In this chapter Rangiku is all alone at home, while Shūhei is following lessons at the academy. Another chance for Gin is coming...

Enjoy!

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

P.s.: for the ones who didn't know, I changed the first chapter. Because I got some complains about it, I also added break lines in the first chapter. So if you want to reread the first chapter: it's now a lot easier!

* * *

Rangiku watched Shūhei disappearing between the trees until she couldn't see him anymore. Then she sighed and walked back into the house.

"I'd better start cleaning, now," she said to herself. "The house is really a mess!"

She started in the kitchen with cleaning up their rice fight. It was really a pain to get the rice out of the tatami. When she finally finished picking all the rice out, she took a broom out of the cupboard and started sweeping.

"Phew," she said after a while, wiping the sweat of her fore head. "When I was living on my own, my house didn't became such a mess!"

She leaned on her broom and stared to the forest outside the little hut she called her house. She saw someone walking towards her.

"Shūhei?" she asked surprised. She looked at the clock in the living room and sighed. It couldn't be Shūhei, it wasn't time, yet. He told her he would not be home before two o'clock.

It would just be someone who was lost or something. Or who was going somewhere near their house.

She shrugged and put the broom back in the cupboard. Then she picked up her tools she used when she worked in the garden. She walked outside into the little field which they called their garden. She started treating all the dead flowers by removing their dead leaves.

"Then you can spare all your energy for the next spring!" she said happily, more against herself than against the flowers.

"Ya started talkin' to flowers?" a strange voice asked.

Rangiku looked up so fast she heard her neck crack. It was the strange boy with the silver hair. He was still having a sad look on his face, but there was also some amusement in it.

"Why are ya talkin' to flowers, don't you know they can't talk back?" he said.

Rangiku couldn't help, but smile. When she smiled, a little smile appeared on the face of the boy. He knelt down next to her.

"I'm sorry for what I did last time we met..." he said.

"I just hadn't control over myself when I saw you... I'm really sorry for what happened... I didn't want to scare you away, it's just.." he sighed heavily while thinking of something to say.

"I don't think you'll believe this, but I'll just try; well, just imagine there was the power to change the past. Not much, just one little thing. But this little thing could change the whole history. That's what happened. You were supposed to meet me, instead of Shūhei. That's why you're now together with Shūhei, and I´m all alone... Me and Shūhei are apparently the only one who can remember how it's supposed to be..."

It sounded so said and it didn't sound as a lie. But a change in history? Could that really happen?

When she looked up to answer, Shūhei was standing on the place where the boy just sat. He knelt down next to her.

"Was he bothering you again? Did he hurt you? Do I have to beat him up for you?" he said worriedly.

Rangiku shook her head.

"No. He was apologizing. And telling me something. He said history changed, and that in the normal history, I should be living with him..."

The worried look on Shūhei's face turned into a really shocked one. So Gin also knew how it was supposed to be. How was it possible? And more important, would he convince Rangiku so she also would remember? If he remembered, he would lose her. And he didn't want that to happen!

"He... er... is just jealous. Yeah, he's jealous. He's all alone and we're together. And you're also a very lovely, beautiful and pretty girl, so it isn't hard to guess why he's jealous at us!" he added with a smile on his face.

Rangiku nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think so... I mean, history can't be changed, can it?"

Shūhei nodded immediately.

"Of course not. So just let's get inside and drink some tea. You're really cold, aren't you?"

Rangiku noticed how cold it was, and shivered. "Yeah, let's get inside and worry about the tea leaves instead of history!"

She scrambled on her feet again and tried to pull Shūhei on his feet.

"Come on, Shūhei, I wan't to read your tea leaves! Not that I'm any good at it, but it's just fun to do!'

Shūhei also got on his feet while laughing at Rangiku.

"Okay, okay, mrs. clear-sighted, let's see what's in my future, apart from you."

When they walked back into the house, they both didn't see the lonely silhouette between the trees. He was clenching his fists, and if you listened very well, you could hear his words, which drafted along on the wind:

"Yeah, the girl who's supposed to be in mý history!"

* * *

Well, that's all for this chapter!

Maybe it's just my opinion, but it looks like I'm making quite short chapters... I'll try and make the next one some longer!

Well, Gin didn't waste his chance this time, but Shūhei interrupted him. Poor Gin... T-T... It's my favourite character, but I'm making it very hard for him...  
But he just has to live with it, cause this is the power of the writer! Or in this case, the power of the fan-fic-er (or however you may say this)! MHUHAHAHAHAA!

*ahem*

See ya next chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

Well, everyone!

The story continues... It's time for Rangiku now to enter the academy. But, just like it's supposed to be, Gin also decides to enter the academy! Well, I think writing about this exam is going to be a lot more fun than Shūhei's exams!

Enjoy reading!

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

When Rangiku woke up, it was still a dull grey outside. The sun also hadn't risen, yet. First, she didn't know why she woke up this early, but then she remembered. It was the day of the entrance exam for the shinigami academy. She jumped out of her bed and started dressing. Then she walked into the kitchen and started preparing breakfast for her and Shūhei. She just poured the boiling water on the noodles when Shūhei walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Shūhei" she said happily.

Shūhei grinned and embraced her. "Good morning, my sweet Ran-chan. But when everything goes well today, you must call me Shūhei-sensei~" he whispered teasingly in her ear.

Rangiku also smiled. "Yeah, and then you also can't call me "my sweet Ran-chan" any more!"

Shūhei laughed softly in her ear and released her. "You've got a point..."

He took a bowl out of the cupboard and walked to the pot with noodles. He put some of the noodles in the bowl and attacked them.

"Are you hungry?" Rangiku asked laughing.

Shūhei nodded. "Vwewy hwungwy!" he said with his mouth full of noodles.

Rangiku laughed while also filling her bowl with noodles. "A sensei musn't talk with his mouth full!"

Shūhei shrugged.

After breakfast, it was still too early to leave, so Rangiku walked restless through their little house. She kept asking Shūhei questions about the exam.

"Is it very difficult? Do you think I'll pass? You really don't have to learn anything? You're sure there isn't a theory exam?"

Shūhei sighed heavily when she asked a question for the sixth time. "Rangiku, just relax! Everything will be okay. You're very talented, so I'm sure you can do it!"

Rangiku sat down on the ground. "I know, it's just... I just háve to pass this exam. Otherwise I'm again stuck here alone for another year. But I don't want that, I want to be with you..."

Shūhei knelt down next to the girl who was on the verge of tears.

"Our first term starts in a week, so I'll come along and wait for you at the academy until you've passed the exam, okay?"

Rangiku just managed to smile. "Okay... Thank you, Shūhei..."

Shūhei looked at the clock in the living room. "Shall we go now?"

Rangiku jumped up, trying to act like she wasn't nervous at all.

"Yeah, c'mon!" she said happily.

They walked outside and headed for the shinigami academy. After a few minutes silent walking, they arrived at the academy.

"Well," Shūhei said slowly. "Our ways part here... Succes Rangiku-chan!"

He embraced her shortly.

Rangiku couldn't say anything, not even that she wasn't Rangiku-chan even more. She only nodded, and walked the steps.

Then she entered the building.

There was a little sign with "Entrance exam" on it, pointing to a classroom. She took a deep breath, and entered the classroom.

Because she was quite early, there weren't that many people in the room, yet. Just a few boys and girls were chatting with each other. One of them was standing alone. She recognized him at once; it was the boy with the silver hair.

The boy raised his head when he heard her entering the room. He raised his head, and his eyes, which were normally shut, opened for a very brief moment.

It was just a fraction of a second, but when they made eye contact, something happened. Her stomach gave a little jolt and her hart forgot to knock for that very moment.

But why.

She didn't know why she felt this, and why for him? She didn't even know his name! She woke up from her thoughts when someone spoke to her.

"Heya!"

She looked up, and saw the boy with the silver hair standing next to her.

He was close.

Too close.

She wasn't frightened because he was this close, it was something else which made her uncomfortable with him being this close.

"Oh... Ehh... Hi..." she stammered, turning red.

Gin grinned softly.

"Ya also wanna become a shinigami?" he asked curious.

Rangiku nodded. "Otherwise I wouldn't be here..." she muttered

Gin leaned casually against the wall next to her.

"Nervous?" he asked. "Ya don't need to be nervous, I'm sure ya'll pass at once! Ya're just made for this!" he added when Rangiku nodded nervously.

Their talking was interrupted by a shinigami who walked into the room.

"Hey, guys," he said. "The exam is about to start, so if you could stop talking and listen to us, thank you very much!"

When everyone in the room turned silent, he continued.

"Well, welcome everybody at this year's exam. I'll explain how the exam works, and then we'll start. What we need is people who have the ability to dodge, and to attack. So what you have to do, is attack the shinigami whose testing you, without being hit yourself. When you're hit, you failed. You only have one change, so do your uttermost best! I guess we can start now..."

After some scrambling around, everyone lined up after one of the shinigami.

"Well, then we'll start this year's exam. Good luck, everyone!"

After a while, it was Gin's turn. It only took a few seconds for him to hit the shinigami, and he dodged the other sword easily.

"PASSED!" was yelled through the room.

Gin grinned to Rangiku, and gave her the wooden sword.

"Good luck!" he whispered. "I'll see you at the beginning of term!"

When Rangiku grabbed the sword, the doors op the classroom opened, but she didn't notice. All the sounds were drained away from the room. The only thing which exist, was her opponent, who she had to hit without being hit herself. She took a deep breath, and searched for an opening.

Then she got a flashback.

She was practising with Shūhei. He was standing exactly on the same spot as the shinigami before her. Back then, she made a feint to the right, quickly switched sides, and hit Shūhei on his left.

She knew she could do it. She know hów she could do it. How she múst do it.

She ran. She slashed her sword at the shinigami from the right. He heaved his sword to protect his right side. It seemed everything went into slow motion. It took her only a fraction of a second to switch the sword from the right side to the left. She put everything into it, and hit the shinigami on his left side.

"PASSED!" was yelled through the room by three voices.

The examinator, Shūhei and Gin were all grinning at her, when she lifted her sword.

Gin was smiling just like he was supposed to.

"That's ma Ran-chan!"

* * *

Well,

That was already chapter 8...

Sorry that it took me so long to write this chapter, but I was busy with school, had a writers block ánd didn't know how I should work out my idea.

But!

But, but, but, but, but...

The chapter is some longer, just as I promised! Yay, I did it! XD

Thanks for reading and (maybe) reviewing!

SeireiteiFantasy


	9. Chapter 9

Well,

This is the next chapter, guys! It took me some longer because of school and I also had a bit of a writers block... But it's here!

Enjoy!

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Rangiku couldn't believe her eyes, but it was really said. The holy word which wouldn't part her from Shūhei. She would also enter the academy, and she wouldn't be stuck alone at home any more. Tears of joy were sliding down her cheeks when she ran to Shūhei. Shūhei caught her and embraced her tightly.

"You did so well, Rangiku! You're amazing!" Shūhei said happily. "Now you'll also enter the academy! And you have to call me sensei..." he added grinning.

Rangiku sighed and nodded. "Yeah... sensei..."

She saw the boy with the silver hair standing behind Shūhei. He smiled at her, and gave her the thumbs up. Then he vanished.

Something inside her told her to run after him. To ask him where he was going. Yes, she was curious about why he also wanted her to pass, and so much more. But to run after him...

Shūhei let her go, and beamed enthusiastic at her. "You've done it, Ran-chan!" he said happily.

Rangiku sighed and closed her eyes. "Yes, Shūhei-sensei..."

Shūhei laughed and hugged her again. "You'll be the best of your class, I'm sure!" he whispered in her ear. Then he let her go again.

"C'mon, let's sign you up and go home!" he said, dragging her into the room in which you could sign up.

The boy with the silver hair just wrote his name on the he walked past them, he patted her friendly on the shoulder.

"You're amazin'!" he whispered so silently only she could hear.

"Thank you," she whispered back.

He smiled at her, and vanished.

Again, she wanted to run after him, or ask him where he was going, but she just managed to stay put.

She turned over to the list, and wrote her name down. Then her eye caught the name above her. The name of the boy with the silver hair.

Ichimaru Gin

So that was his name. It felt really familiar, like she used that name every day. Shouted it everyday after him when he vanished without telling where he was going...

She shook her head, she was just imagining things.

"Well, shall we go home now?" asked Shūhei when Rangiku put her pen down.

"Yeah, okay," said Rangiku, still a bit absent.

They walked outside and wanted to walk away, when a shinigami ran to him.

"Shūhei!" he screamed.

Shūhei turned around, and recognised the shinigami. "What's wrong, Maneki?"

Maneki stopped next to them, panting.

"Well, the Gotei 13 is a bit short on shinigami's, so we could use some talented students to help us with some missions. Are you willing to be one of them?"

Shūhei shrugged. "I shouldn't know why not," he said. "When are the missions starting?"

Maneki shrugged. "I think they'll start somewhere during the first term. They could start on your first day back, or it could take a few weeks..."

Shūhei laughed. "Well, thank you. I'll see them coming, then".

Maneki smiled back. "I've got a mission myself now, so I've got to dash. See you!"

"Bye!" Shūhei said.

Rangiku jumped at him, and hugged him tightly.

"I knew you were talented," Rangiku laughed happily. "But I couldn't dream the Gotei 13 would also see this!"

Shūhei hugged her back. "Thank you, Rangiku! Without you, I wouldn't have done half that well!"

Rangiku smiled, and buried her face on Shūhei's shoulder. "I'm glad I know you, Shūhei. Life would really suck without you..."

Shūhei released her. "Well, shall we go now?" he asked.

Rangiku nodded. "Yeah, let's go!"

They walked outside, and while walking, Rangiku remembered something.

"Do you need to go to the market today?" Rangiku asked.

Shūhei slammed his hand against his forehead.

"Damn, I forgot!" he sighed. "Well, if you just go home alone, I'll go quickly to the market"

Rangiku nodded, and walked back home alone.

Then someone released himself from the shadows.

It was the boy with the silver hair.

"Hey... Gin, wasn't it?" said Rangiku carefully.

The boy smiled happily when he heard her saying his name.

"Yes, I'm Ichimaru Gin, pleased to meet you," he said and he bowed.

Rangiku just couldn't help but smile.

"I'm really glad ya passed the exam, I guess we're in the same class now. Just like it's used to be."

Rangiku chuckled.

"Used to be? Is there another life in which it should be different?" she said.

It was meant as a joke, but the boy took it serious.

"Yes. Well, not another life, but another history, present and future. I don't know it happened, but it happened."

Rangiku frowned.

"What happened, then? And how is it used to be?"

Gin sighed heavily.

"Promise me ya won't laugh at me, scold me, hate me of be furious at me for this, 'cause it's the truth."

Rangiku nodded, eager to hear his story.

"Well, when you were really young, you were attacked by a few shinigami, and left to starve to death. Well, Shūhei saved ya, didn't he? I was supposed to do that."

Rangiku stared at Gin with disbelieve. He? She was used to be saved by him?

"It is such a little thing," Gin continued. "But it caused me to loose ya, my biggest love. My most valuable thing. My Rangiku-chan..."

Rangiku just couldn't.

How stupid, weird and jealous his story sounded, she couldn't laugh at him. His voice was just so sad. And when his eyes, which were nearly always closed, opened, his face was also so sad...

Rangiku carefully walked some nearer, and put an arm around him.

"Well, tell me how it used to be. Not the big lines, but every detail you remember. Maybe I'll also remember..." she said. "I just can't stand seeing you this sad, even though I don't know you well..."

But then she was roughly pulled backwards by an arm around her throat.

Shūhei was standing next to her with his arm around his throat, and his other arm was grabbing Gin's throat. The groceries from the market were laying on the ground a few foot ahead.

"You stay away from her, understand me?" Shūhei yelled to Gin, who was turning blue and trying to release himself.

"Please, Shūhei," Rangiku said. But due to his arm around his throat, it was just a mere whisper.

She started tugging at Shūhei's arms, so he would release her something.

"Stop telling her lies, you jealous, foxefaced bastard!" Shūhei continued at Gin.

Gin was slowly turning purple now.

When his and Rangiku's eyes met, Rangiku just couldn't stand the sadness in his eyes any more.

"I'm só sorry..." she whispered at him.

Then she closed her eyes, and did something she never did before.

She slammed Shūhei in the face.

Surprised, Shūhei released her so she could escape and breathe freely again.

"You're suffocating me!" she yelled at Shūhei. "And don't you see how sad he is? No one can lie with a face that sad".

Shūhei's look was very dark when he walked towards her.

"You don't know what he can do, Rangiku. So stay away from him," he said. "If I ever see you two together, I'll kill you both!"

He raised his hands, grabbed Rangiku's hair, and pulled her with him in the direction of their house.

"Go," she whispered at Gin when she was tugged past Gin who was standing frozen on the spot. "I'm save, he won't kill me".

"SHUT UP!" Shūhei yelled, and he slapped her in the face.

He gave another tug at her hair, and she stumbled further.

"Go," she whispered again at Gin, her eyes full of tears. "Please, save yourself..."

Another tug at her hair.

But Gin clenched his fists.

"No," he said angry. "No, Rangiku-chan, you're the one who needs to be saved."

His eyes were still open, but something has changed. The sad look was replaced by a very angry one.

The fox has lost his temper.

Out of nowhere, he shot at Shūhei, and slammed him on the ground. Shūhei felt down, and had to let go of Rangiku.

When Rangiku felt him releasing his grip on her hair, she stumbled backwards.

"Go," Gin said.

Rangiku nodded, and ran away.

Then Gin turned back at Shūhei.

"So, Shūhei," he said, an dark aura emitting from him. "I'll teach you how you have to treat girls. I won't let you hurt Rangiku any more!"

The last thing Rangiku could see before the trees covered the scene, was Gin jumping at Shūhei...

* * *

Well,

Shūhei's evil side is revealed.

He's not that bad, actually, but he just doesn't want to lose Rangiku...

I'll try to update some sooner the next time!

See ya!  
SeireiteiFantasy


	10. Chapter 10

Hey everyone,

Here's the next chapter everyone!

Enjoy!

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Rangiku was running through the forest. Trees went by in just one big blur. She just couldn't believe it that Shūhei really slammed her. She only wanted to help that boy, he was so lonely and sad... Was it really bad to help him? Was he really that dangerous?

But he saved her. Then he couldn't be dangerous, could he? Maybe he was just jealous, but still... His eyes were just so sad, you couldn't fake something like that.

Blinded by her tears, she only saw one big blur of colours. She didn't see anything, just her own sadness, fear and pain.

Then she tripped over a tree root. She fell down on the ground, crying, and just couldn't move any more.

She lay there crying until the sky went dark.

Then soft hands were put around her and lifted her up in the air.

"I'm sorry, ma Ran-chan," a voice said.

It was Gin.

"Where are you sorry for? You have to blame me for not stopping Shūhei, for him hurting you, while you're innocent..."

Gin grinned softly while carrying her home.

"I'm sorry because I let Shūhei hurt ya, and because I let you live with someone that dangerous..."

"Don't mind me, Shūhei won't hurt me any more. When he hurts me, he also hurts himself. He was just so.. blind of anger..."

Gin pushed Rangiku some tighter to his chest.

"I know. That's why I'm bringing ya home now," he said. "He saved you, so he deserves you. After we fought, Shūhei's eyes opened and he saw what he did. I just could stop him before he committed suicide right on the spot".

Rangiku was so shocked from hearing this, she moved so suddenly Gin nearly dropped her.

"He wanted to commit suicide only because he slapped me?" she screamed, her voice higher than normal.

"Shh," Gin said, gripping her firmly. "If I drop you now, Shūhei kills me".

Rangiku immediately calmed down and put her head back on Gin's chest. "Sorry... Is Shūhei also looking for me?"

Gin absently started stroking her hair. "Yes, and he's all upset because he thinks you've been eaten by a bear or something... I think you really need to calm him down..."

Then he grinned.

"But I don't think a bear would eat you, there a lot nicer things to eat..." he said teasingly while softly pulling her hair.

"You!" Rangiku laughed, and she sat up to slam him.

Gin wasn't prepared for this, so he lost his balance, and they both fell on the ground.

Laughing, Rangiku opened her eyes, and saw Gin close to her.

Very close.

He seemed to drawing nearer with the second.

Then a voice sounded through the woods.

"Rangiku!" it screamed, hoarse and drenched with the sound of crying and panic.

"That's Shūhei," Gin said, looking up. "Let's go to him so he doesn't need to worry any more".

Rangiku nodded, and Gin lifted her up again.

"I can walk myself..." Rangiku said while putting her head against Gin's chest again.

"Yeah, but you aren't really enthusiastic to do it," Gin said, grinning.

Then the clouds shove away and the place was lit with moonlight. In the middle of one of the moonbeams, stood Shūhei. His eyes were red and swollen of crying, and they seemed darker than Rangiku remembered. But when he saw Rangiku, his face cleared. The hard expression disappeared, and the light in his eyes was lit again.

"Rangiku!" he yelled.

He ran to her, and embraced her still crying.

"I've been so stupid Rangiku, I shouldn't have slammed you... I mean, you could've been eaten by a bear, or robbed, abused and killed by some drunks..."

Rangiku stroked his hair.

"It's okay, Shūhei, I'm still alive..."

"No, it's not okay! You're so cold, you must've caught a cold. Please, Rangiku, don't forgive me, scold me, leave me, punish me, hate me! I deserve it!"

Gin put Rangiku on the ground again, so she could embrace Shūhei too.

Rangiku folded her arms around him, and patted him on the back.

"No, I won't Shūhei. Don't you remember all those days we lived happily together? There was also one day I hit you because you said I couldn't do anything myself. You didn't went angry at me, you didn't scold me, you didn't abandon me. Maybe it's hard to live with my kindness, but it's harder to live fully without me. So no, Shūhei, I forgive you..."

Shūhei hugged her some tighter. "Thank you, Rangiku," he whispered. "Slamming a girl is much more worse than slamming me, but still... Thank you..."

Rangiku couldn't suppress a shiver when a cold wind swept through the woods. Her kimono was torn all over because of her wild run through the forest, so it didn't gave that much warmth.

"We really need to go home now," Shūhei said. "Gin, are you also coming? I owe you one. Or two. Or just a lot..."

He turned around.

"Gin?"

But he wasn't there. When Rangiku was distracted by Shūhei, he vanished in the dark.

Rangiku just couldn't stand it any more. She fell down on her knees, crying.

"Gin? Where are you going?"

* * *

Hey everyone,

This was the next chapter already, hope you liked it...

I just couldn't stay Shūhei this cruel, and Gin also has to keep his typical and maybe worst habit: leaving without a word.

But of course Gin is also there in the next chapter, when Rangiku has her first day at the academy.

Thank you so very much for reading and maybe even reviewing!

See ya next chapter!

SeireiteiFantasy


	11. Chapter 11

Hey everyone!

This is new chapter.

Rangiku is going to the shinigami academy for the first time. With Gin...

I don't really know how things go on the academy, so I just improve something... ^-^

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Rangiku was tugging at her uniform. "Is it supposed to fit like this?" she asked worried. "Doesn't it make me fatter?"

Shūhei grinned and pulled her towards him.

"You look beautiful as always, Rangiku." he whispered in her ear. "And maybe even more beautiful than ever".

Rangiku smiled while releasing herself and straightened her uniform.

"You really love this, don't you?" she laughed.

Shūhei smiled at her. "Oh, yeah~!" he grinned, and he pushed her onto the ground.

...

A few minutes later, they left their home for what it was, and walked to the Shinigami Academy.

"Is it hard to find your classrooms? Are the first days really difficult? What if they start bullying me?"

Shūhei sighed and put his arm on her shoulders.

"Rangiku-chan, just like I said, the classrooms aren't hard to find, and if you get lost, you can always ask someone or look on the map of the building. They're all over the place, so it's really hard to get lost. And no, the first days aren't difficult, because they guide you through everything. And god should know why they should start bullying such a pretty girl. And íf they start, I'll help you out!"

Rangiku gave him a weak smile, but she didn't look any satisfied with this.

Then the path they walked was joined with another path, and on the path which joined them, walked someone.

Ichimaru Gin was walking on ease to the academy, his thoughts somewhere else.

When he spotted Rangiku, he walked towards her and gave her a short hug, which was answered by Rangiku.

"Heey, ma Ran-chan," he said cheerfully.

Shūhei gritted his teeth, but didn't say anything. After all, he saved Rangiku.

"Morning, Ichimaru," he said, maybe somewhat colder than normal.

"Good mornin', Hisagi," Gin replied, also somewhat colder than usual.

Rangiku released herself from Gin, still clenching his kimono.

"Heey," she said a bit shyly. "Good to see you. Where did you go last night? I didn't even have time to thank you..."

After a last scowl at Shūhei, Gin looked down at Rangiku and smiled at the sight of her asking and maybe even a bit painful look.

"Well, you were safely with Shūhei again, so I thought I'd better leave ya two alone and go home..."

Rangiku clenched Gin's kimono some tighter.

"But you didn't even say that you were going and whére you were going... I háte it when people leave without a word..."

Gin smiled at her, and wanted to hug her again, but Shūhei pulled Rangiku away from him.

"Sorry, but we need to go now. Otherwise we'll be too late for the opening of term," he said coldly.

Gin just shrugged. "Okay, I'll walk along with ya"

They walked along to the academy. Shūhei kept scowling at Gin when Gin walked next to Rangiku, but Gin only smiled back and continued talking to Rangiku.

They arrived at the building in no time, and after the opening, Rangiku and Shūhei had to part. Shūhei started in one of the top classes of year 2, and Rangiku and Gin were together in one of the top classes of year 1.

"Do your very best, Rangiku," Shūhei said while hugging her.

"I'm leaving her to you, Ichimaru," he said coldly with a bad grace.

"I'll keep an eye on her, but I think she can do a lot of it herself..." Gin replied as cold as Shūhei.

Rangiku grinned and poked Shūhei. "I'm not a helpless child any more, Shūhei!"

Shūhei grinned weakly. "Well, I'd better leave now..." he said. "See you at break!"

"Okay, bye!" Rangiku said.

Together with Gin, she walked to their classroom. She still didn't really know him, but she always felt very comfortable around him, and she trusted him. She didn't know why, but she just did.

When they entered the classroom, they sat down together.

After a while, the lesson started, and Rangiku immediately started taking notes.

Gin didn't write anything down, but just listened. After a while, he leaned backwards on his seat, and grinned relaxed.

"Man, this is so easy..." he sighed.

Rangiku looked up from her notes.

"Do you think so? Nearly all the stuff I hear right now, I never heard or read before. And I helped Shūhei studying for his exam, though..."

She quickly looked back at the teacher in front of the classroom, and continued taking notes.

Gin grinned, put an arm around her shoulders, and pushed her some closer next to him.

"Rangiku-chan, easy now. It's just our first day, and what the teacher is telling right now, I can tell ya anytime. Just relax and enjoy. D'ya see anyone who is also takin' notes? No. Is this really important and difficult? No. And it's also standing on page 7 of your text book..."

Rangiku looked from her notes to the book in front of her.

"What the?"

Gin laughed softly, and played with her hair.

"Just as I said..."

Rangiku laughed back at him. The smiling face in front of her, was so much better than the sad face she saw yesterday.

In the meantime, Shūhei already broke two pencils, and was muttering every curse at Gin he knew. Why needed that foxface bastard to ruin his life again?

* * *

Well,

This chapter is updated some quicker than the others. Yes, I'm learning it! XD

And I swear, nothing special happened on the tree spots at the beginning of the story, I just didn't know what to write there. Íf something happened there, Shūhei went to his first day of his second year with two black eyes, and an awful pain in the stomach and between the legs...

XD

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	12. Chapter 12

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter. Hope you like it...

Oh, and I would really appreciate it when you review, because I would like to know how many people like this story. X3

Enjoy!

**~Questions~**

**Kigaroo:** No, Shūhei and Rangiku aren't in the same class, but Gin and Rangiku are together in the same class.

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Shūhei ran to the corridor to Rangiku, who was standing next to Gin, chatting and laughing.

Panting, he stopped next to them.

"Heey, Rangiku-chan!" he said, ignoring Gin completely. "How were your first lessons?"

"Also a very nice day, 69..." Gin muttered.

Shūhei scowled at Gin, but didn't say anything.

"Yeah, it went al right..." Rangiku said, nodding slowly. "I still think Kidō is a bit hard, but Gin helped me, so now I nearly understand everything..."

Gin smiled. "You can always come at me with any problems, even in the middle of the night."

Rangiku also grinned. "Well, I would like to wake you up in the middle of the night, but unfortunately, I don't know where you live..."

Gin shrugged. "You can come with me after school..."

Rangiku looked longing at Shūhei.

"Please? Can I go?" she asked very innocently.

Shūhei smiled weakly.

"Well, this afternoon, I have a mission from the Gotei 13. I think it's safer for you to be with Gin, than to be all alone at home... So yes, you can go..." he said, with a bad grace only Gin noticed.

Rangiku hugged him happily. "Thank you, Shūhei!"

Gin smiled at Shūhei. "Thanks, 69, for trusting me this much..."

Shūhei smiled back at him and touched the 69 tattooed on his cheek. The reminder of the man who saved his and Rangiku's life.

"Yes... You're welcome..." he muttered.

After the last lesson, Shūhei quickly said goodbye to Rangiku, and headed for Seireitei for his mission.

Rangiku watched him leave.

"It seems quite cool to me that ya can already enter Seireitei without being a real shinigami, yet..." Gin said a bit dreamily.

Rangiku nodded. "Yeah... Well, we'll become a shinigami soon enough. The education only takes six years..."

Gin grinned and took Rangiku's hand. "Yeah, we'll see, then. C'mon, let's go home!"

Rangiku smiled happily. "Yeah, I want to know where you live!"

While walking down the way to Gin's home, Gin was still holding Rangiku's hand. It felt very safe and trusted.

After walking for a while, they arrived at a very small house. It wasn't that different from Rangiku's home, and she felt like she had known that little hut for ages.

"It's not much, but it's home..." Gin said. "At least, for me. But ya can always come of course, and also call this yer home, if ya want so..."

Rangiku smiled. "Our hut also isn't that much. But it contains memories, and I would never give it away."

Gin also smiled. "How about some tea, Ran-chan?" he said, while walking to his house.

Rangiku quickly ran after him. "Yeah, great!" she said.

Then she nearly tripped over a tree root.

Just before she hit the ground, strong arms grabbed her shoulders. Gin lifted her on her feet again.

"Watch yer feet, Ran-chan!" he said grinning.

Rangiku smiled a bit uncertain, turning red in the face.

"T-thank you..." she said.

Gin waved her thanks away. "Nah, don't mind it. You already own me one, so it doesn't matter..." he said a bit teasing.

"Oh yeah..." Rangiku said, remembering why she owned him one. "Because you saved me from Shūhei... What do I have to-"

She could never finish her sentence, because Gin clapped his hand over her mouth.

"I was only jokin', Ran-chan. You don't owe me one. And if you did, you've already paid me back by comin' along with me..."

Rangiku briefly closed her eyes, while muttering a thanks.

"Just shut the thanks away now, Ran-chan," Gin said while continuing walking to his house.

Rangiku walked after him, more careful than before.

When she entered the little building, something flashed before her eyes. It looked like a flashback, but she'd never been here before. And she also never sat there, staring into the snow, thinking about where on earth Gin was going.

Gin grabbed her just before she fell upon the ground.

"I have to catch ya very often, today, d'ya like the ground that- hey, is everything okay?" he said worried when he saw Rangiku's face.

Rangiku nodded, but Gin didn't believe her.

"Just sit over there, don't faint, I'll get ya some tea..." he said while pushing her down on the ground.

He vanished in the kitchen while Rangiku looked around the small hut. It was a lot smaller and very different from her home, but it still felt very familiar.

Gin came back out of the kitchen carrying two mugs with tea. He gave one of them to Rangiku, and sat down next to her.

"Feelin' a bit better already?" he asked worried.

Rangiku quickly nodded. She was still a bit dizzy, but she didn't want to worry him.

They sat there for a while, drinking tea.

"Aren't you feeling very lonely?" Rangiku asked curious.

Gin nodded. "But I'm used to it..."

Rangiku laid her hand on his arm.

"That seems awful to me... I'll ask Shūhei if you can come and live with us. That's a lot nicer, I guess... No one wants to be lonely, and no one should be lonely... "

Gin smiled to her and hugged her with one arm. "Rangiku, that would be great!"

* * *

Hey,

This is already the new chapter. It's a bit a crap talk-chapter, I think, there doesn't happen a lot in it...

I'll try to make the next chapter some more fun to read!

See ya next chapter!

~SeireiteiFantasy


	13. Chapter 13

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Hope you like it...

Sorry it took me so long... Some people update very much in holidays, but I always get lazy :P Try to be some sooner next chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Rangiku looked up when someone knocked on the door, and stepped inside.

"Shūhei!" she yelled happily. She quickly put her mug down, ran to Shūhei and hugged him tightly.

"You're still alive!" she joked while Gin also strolled towards them.

"Yeah, but it was a close shave," Shūhei said seriously.

Rangiku let Shūhei go. "But... But... You told me it was completely safe! That there was no chance you wouldn't survive! And-"

Shūhei placed his hand over Rangiku's mouth.

"Calm down, Rangiku. I was only joking, dummy!"

"I'wm nwo dwummwy..." sounded Rangiku's voice from underneath Shūhei's hand.

She pushed his hand away. "And you don't have to go joking about things I really worried about just because the Soul Society noticed your existence..."

Shūhei grinned. "Aaah... Are you jealous? Is my little Ran-chan jealous at me because-"

"I'm not jealous, I was terribly worried about you! But if you act like this, I see I didn't had to. Because yóu're so great and fantastic! Oh, Great Shūhei will survive everything, and just joke about it!"

Shūhei closed his eyes briefly, it hurt to hear her talking like this about him.

"Sorry, Rangiku, I didn't know you were that worried... "

Rangiku gave him a little smile, and embraced him again.

"And maybe I'm too worried... You can manage things by yourself and you're not the little boy who has to be saved from hollows any more..."

Shūhei sighed happily and hugged her back.

"Yeah, it also takes me time to realise you're not the little girl I saved, any more, but a very beautiful woman..."

Rangiku giggled. "Well, thank you..."

"And," Shūhei said sharply while releasing Rangiku and turning to Gin. "Nothing happened?"

Gin quickly shook his head. "Not at all, we only drank tea, and it wouldn't come into my mind to poison her, would I?"

Rangiku laughed, and Shūhei could also perform a little smile.

"No, I guess not..."

Shūhei turned back to Rangiku.

"Well, time to go now, I guess..." he said, smiling to her.

Rangiku's laugh faded from her face. "But then Gin is all alone again..." she said.

"No, never mind me, please go home with Shūhei if he wants so..." Gin quickly said.

Rangiku looked at Shūhei with puppy eyes.

"Please, Shūhei? Can't he come and live with us? Then Gin isn't alone any more, and nobody should be lonely. Then I'm also never alone at home, and Gin and I can walk to our classes together," she begged.

Shūhei opened his mouth to answer Rangiku, but Gin was faster.

"Well, we can walk together when we've got classes on the same time."

Rangiku frowned. "What do you mean, _"when we've got classes on the same time"_? We're in the same class!"

"Well," Gin said after hesitating for a moment. "Not any more... Remember I told you I thought it was too easy at our first day? Well, the teacher thought the same... So now I can skip the first year, and continue in the second..."

Rangiku stared at him with big eyes of disbelief.

"Since when do you know that?" Rangiku asked hysterical.

"Please calm down, Ran-chan," Gin sighed. "I only know about this for about two weeks or somethin'..."

"You knew it that long and you didn't tóld me? I mean, we're in the same class. And I thought... I thought... I thought you cáred about me?" Rangiku yelled with a breaking voice.

Gin closed his eyes, clearly hurt by her words. "Ran-chan... I wanted to-"

"Yeah, you wanted to, but you didn't do it! Didn't care about the fact I was all alone stuck at the first year again? It seems everyone I care, or in this case care**d** about, go to the second, but I don't. But I'm not going to cry about it! Just forget it! GIN, I HATE YOU!" Rangiku screamed. Then she ran out of the little hut

"Rangiku..." Gin said helplessly, stretching his arm out towards Rangiku. "Please... Don't... I didn't mean to..."

Shūhei smirked at Gin before running after Rangiku.

"Seems she is all mine again... You know she's easily hurt! You'd better told her when you got to know it, maybe she would be able to live it, then. But no, you didn't. And this mistake caused you to lose her... Bad luck, mate, but I can see a brighter side. You see, when she doesn't care about you any more, that what's supposed to happen, won't happen! She will love me, instead of you! And I won't lose her, like you did! See you! Or no, even better: don't see you!" he said.

Then Shūhei ran after Rangiku.

She collapsed a few yards from the building, crying her eyes out of her head.

"Please, calm down, Rangiku..." Shūhei said, taking Rangiku into his arms. "Let's go out of here so he won't hurt you any more..."

Rangiku nodded. "Yes... I want to get away from here... Away from that idiot..."

Gin gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, while tears slid down his cheek.

"Sorry, Rangiku-chan... I couldn't save you..."

* * *

Well,

It's nearly nearly Christmas (I'm writing on Christmas eve XD) but not a happy Christmas for Gin here... Aah... :(

But,

Merry Christmas to all of you~!

See ya next chapter~!


	14. Chapter 14

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter. Hope you like it...

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

And thanks to my mother for helping me improving my English~! :D

* * *

Rangiku looked into the mirror. School had ended, and they were going to the end of terms school Yule ball. This started after the ceremony of giving the graduated ones their diploma's and eventually giving out rewards for super talented students.

Shūhei entered the room, wearing a black suit with bow tie. Then he spotted Rangiku in her ocean blue dress.

"Wow, Rangiku, you look amazing!" he exclaimed.

Rangiku flushed. "Really?"

Shūhei nodded. "Why would I lie about it?"

Then he offered her his arm.

"Well, beautiful lady, if you would like to escort me to the ball?"

Rangiku giggled, and took his arm.

"Yeah, suppose I have to..."

Shūhei's laugh faded away from his face. "What do you mean "suppose to"? You don't like to go? Or you don't like to go with me? I wouldn't mind if you had chosen anybody else, or if we wouldn't go at all or-"

He stopped talking because Rangiku placed her finger on his mouth.

"Shhh..." she said. "I didn't mean it that way. It was just a little joke... You just care about me too much..."

Shūhei smiled and took her hand in his.

"Well, let's go, then," he said, and he softly pulled her outside.

Rangiku quickly ran after him, and started walking next to him. She placed her head on his shoulder.

"I've never been to a ball before... Did you go to previous year's ball?"

Shūhei shook his head. "No, I didn't want to go without you. Previous year's ball was on the night we made that night walk with full moon."

Rangiku nodded slowly. "Oh, that one..."

Then, a person joined their path a few yards ahead. His silver hair was shining in the moonlight.

Rangiku stopped walking and stayed motionless on the spot where she was standing.

Shūhei, who hadn't noticed this, nearly pulled her over.

"What's wrong, Rangiku?" he asked worried.

Rangiku pointed to the person before them who slowly was dissolved in the darkness of the night.

"It's Gin. I don't want to see him, talk to him, or just come near to him!" she whispered urgent.

Shūhei just could suppress a smile.

"Shall we just stay here for a moment, or just walk further and pretend he is thin air?"

Rangiku hesitated for a moment, but then she sighed.

"I have to face him at the ball, so I think we better can ignore him and just walk. Otherwise we might be too late..."

Shūhei nodded, took her arm and started walking again, but they didn't meet Gin on their way to the academy.

When they entered the Great Hall of the academy where the ball was going to take place, the once who graduated were already lined up after a man with a long white beard.

"That's Yamamoto Genryūsei Shigekuni-sensei-sama," Shūhei whispered to Rangiku.

Rangiku smiled. "That's a mouth full..." she whispered back.

"Well, he's the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, so what do you expect?" Shūhei answered, also smiling.

Rangiku let her eye slide over all the graduated. Then she spotted someone standing at the end of the row of students.

It was Gin.

She softly pushed Shūhei, who was listening to the Captain-Commander's speech, in his stomach to get his attention.

"Shūhei!" she whispered on an urgent tone. "Gin graduated. But he's only been here for one year?"

Shūhei frowned while also looking at Gin.

"Yeah, then he did it very quickly... The one who went through this the fastest until now was Shiba Kaien, in two years..."

"Well, seems like that record is broken... One year, how did he do that?"

Shūhei shrugged. "Dunno..."

After a few minutes, it was Gin's turn. He received his certificate and a trophy, which was the "Prize for Most Outstanding Performances by Very Talented Students", which would be left behind at the school as reminder of his talented days here.

At least, that was what the Captain Commander said...

Gin was the last one, so the ball could start after another speech of the headmaster. Then the ball would be opened by the graduated ones.

Rangiku didn't really pay attention during the speech, it was the most boring one she'd ever heard.

Looking around, she saw Gin sneaking out of the Great Hall.

"Back in a second," she muttered against Shūhei, and before he could say anything, she ran after Gin and was soon swallowed by the crowd.

Shūhei shrugged, and continued listening.

After a lot of pushing Rangiku finally arrived, slowed down by the crowd, at the doors.

After one last glance to make sure no one was looking, she also sneaked out of the Great Hall, and sneaked after Gin.

She looked to the lonely figure in front of her, who was looking out over the school terrains he'd never enter again as a student.

Now she realised how unfair she'd been with him, he couldn't help it he was so talented...

She walked towards him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Gin looked up at once, frightened, with his eyes opened. They were the most beautiful blue she'd ever seen.

"Hey," Rangiku said softly.

Gin relaxed a bit, and closed his eyes again.

"I just... wanted to say I'm sorry, as this is probably the last time we'll met in... five years?"

Gin didn't say anything, but shook her hand off.

Then he walked away, in the direction of his way home.

"Gin, wait!" Rangiku said. "Where are you... Don't you stay? It's a one-time experience, and you won't get a chance to-"

She suddenly stopped because Gin stood before her again.

"What that a flash step? Never mind," she said a bit uncertain. "You only can do this once, you mustn't ruin it, now..."

"And what should I do there? I haven't got a partner. Should I just watch the others dance? Should I just watch ya dance with that Shūhei?"

Rangiku briefly closed her eyes.

"No... Sorry, I mean... I'll dance with you!"

She'd said it before she even thought of it, but she didn't felt wrong by the thought of dancing with Gin.

Gin smiled for the first time since Rangiku scolded him for not telling her he was continuing in year two.

"Really?" he said hopefully.

Rangiku nodded. "Really. You don't even have to go inside," she added when the music started to play inside. "I'll also dance here with you so you... so you can leave any time without bothering others or... or..."

She stopped because Gin took her hand in his, and laid his arm on her back.

"Let's dance, Ran-chan," he whispered when Rangiku opened her mouth to say something.

It surprised Rangiku that Gin could dance this well. He danced with her during the whole song without making a single mistake. When the music changed, he stopped.

"Thank you, Ran-chan," he whispered, lowering his head next to hers. "I really won't forget you while being in the Soul Society. And when you also graduate, you must come to the same squad as I, okay?"

Rangiku smiled softly, and nodded. Then Gin blocked the moon in front of her, making the world around her go black.

"Goodbye, Ran-chan," he whispered.

Then he kissed her.

Before Rangiku could do or even realise it, he already left.

After a few seconds, Rangiku finally found her voice back.

And with a breaking voice, drenched with tears, she asked him that very question.

"Gin! Where are you going!"

And then, out of the darkness of the trees, his voice echoed towards her.

"Home~!"

* * *

Well,

That was already this chapter...

I tried to make it some longer this time, and apparently, I didn't fail this time XD

It's finally good again between Gin and Rangiku~! Maybe not like how it's supposed to be, but good enough to make Shūhei jealous. And he surely would be if Rangiku told him (but she's of course not so stupid to do that XD)

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	15. Chapter 15

Hey everyone,

This is the next chapter~! It took me some longer to update because I was sick... :( But the chapter is also quite longer :)

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Rangiku was walking next to Shūhei, to the academy. Usually, students were boarded at the Academy, but there was a shortage of rooms, so students in a specific area had to stay home and walk there. Rangiku didn't mind. It was always nice to get things off your mind before classes started.

"Today is a special day," Shūhei said to no one in particular. "First, a captain and his vice-captain are coming around to inspect the academy. And after that, I'll have field practice with a few first years"

Rangiku smiled. "So you're even teaching now, huh? Shūhei-sensei~!"

Shūhei smiled and ruffed through her hair.

"Yeah, to little brats like you," he grinned.

Rangiku also laughed. "I'm no brat!"

Shūhei laid an arm around her shoulder and pressed her briefly against him. "I know, Rangiku, I know..."

After walking for a while, they arrived at the academy. Shūhei started talking with a boy and a girl which would go to teach at the field practice as well, and Rangiku just stood there for a bit.

After a while, people started running to the entrance. Rangiku heard some people yell: "A real captain! From the Gotei 13! When I'm a shinigami, I wanna be a captain, too!"

Smiling, Rangiku also walked to the entrance.

There was already a huge crowd there. Rangiku pushed herself to the front, to see the captain as well.

A man with brown hair, glasses and a white captain haori with the Japanese sign for number 5 walked to the front doors., followed by a guy dressed in the traditional shinigami uniform and wearing a vice-captainsbadge. A guy with silver hair.

"Gin?" Rangiku exclaimed.

Nearly everyone, including Gin, looked in her direction, but Rangiku didn't mind. Gin seemed to see and recognize her, but couldn't say or do anything, because he had to follow his captain. He smiled to her, and walked along, and entered the academy together with his captain. Some of the people walked away, some of them stayed, but no one walked after them.

Rangiku ran to the front doors, took a deep breath, and walked inside. Silently, she walked after Gin and his new captain. She heard them talking about old memories coming back and this like that.

Suddenly, the captain turned around, and spotted Rangiku. He pointed at her, and said something to Gin.

Turning red, Rangiku quickly walked past them, and turned around the first corner she crossed. There, she ran into Shūhei.

"Oh, there you are," Shūhei said, catching her. "I'm going now, and I thought you might want to know that..."

Rangiku smiled a bit nervously.

"Yeah... Thank you. Don't get hurt, okay?"

Shūhei grinned. "It's completely safe! And if something happens, I'll get it under control. Remember the letter I showed you a couple of months ago? That was a squad assignment from the Gotei 13. They think I'm strong enough, so I think I'll get out of this unharmed. Are you now satisfied, Rangiku?"

Rangiku showed him a weak smile. "Yeah... Sort off..."

Shūhei hugged her, and left the little girl. He walked to the boy and girl who were going with him, named Aoga and Kanisawa.

"C'mon, let's go and teach those brats how to fight," he said, and they walked to the spot where they would enter the real world.

A couple of minutes later, Shūhei found himself facing a herd of first-year students.

They introduced themselves, and when Shūhei said his name, there was some rummaging about and finger pointing at Shūhei.

Shūhei sighed, why did everyone in the school know the Gotei 13 had already assigned him?

When it was silent again, Kanisawa explained how the groups were formed and that everyone had to search the students who got the same number on their cards as they got.

After a while, when everyone had found the members of their group, the explanation continued.

"Sixth round students awaiting us in the living world have created a barrier surrounding an appropriately sized area." Kanisawa said.

Aoga continued. "We will have you conduct combat training therein with dummy hollows."

"While we, sixth round students, will prepare an easy location to fight in, we won't assist in the combat itself," Shūhei warned the "brats" in front of him. "Got that? Okay, let's go!"

And with that, they could finally leave. Shūhei opened the senkai and they entered the world of living.

When they set foot there, Shūhei heard some other students shout instructions to each other. "It's begun! Maintain the strength of the barrier! It's common to be attacked by the real thing during training!" "Acknowledged! This area is a safe zone, though." "This is training for us, as well. Don't relax because it's a safe zone!" "Yeah, yeah."

Shūhei smiled, and a few minutes later, the fight against the dummy hollows had begun.

A group existing of a guy with blond hair, a guy with red hair tied into a ponytail which look liked a pineapple and a girl with black hair were fighting at the moment. They were Kira Izuru, Aberai Renji and Hinamori Momo.

Renji hunted the hollow to Hinamori who scared it in Kira's direction with Hado #31. Then Kira jumped at the hollow, and slashed his head, defeating him.

They were the last ones, so Aoga nodded shortly. "'Bout time to pull out," he said.

"Like we finished safe and sound," Kanisawa added relieved.

Shūhei sighed. Luckily, Rangiku didn't have to fear anything. No one even got as little as a bruise.

He contacted the other sixth years in the surroundings.

"This is Hisagi at the rally point. Barrier Team, what's your status?" he said.

"Hey, respond!" he added when no one answered, becoming slightly nervous. "What's wrong, barrier team? Can you hear me? Hey, answer me! Hey!"

Kanisawa looked nervously at him. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Something is wrong," Shūhei answered worried. "No one of the barrier team is responding."

Kanisawa turned around and looked at the tower where the barrier team was located. "Hisagi-kun!" she yelled.

Hisagi looked around, and his eyes widened.

A scream tore through the night.

A huge hollow was bowing over the students, and threw Kanisawa away. Dead.

Shūhei drew his sword.

"Damn, a huge hollow?" he muttered. "That's impossible! How could we not have noticed this thing's approach?"

Now Rangiku hád to worry... But he wouldn't die! He couldn't leave Rangiku behind! He just hád to survive!

"Bastard, how dare you to kill Kanisawa?" Aoga screamed next to him, also drawing his sword and waking Shūhei up from his thoughts.

Aoga charged at the hollow before Shūhei could do or say anything.

"Aoga, don't!" Shūhei screamed, but it was too late. "Aoga!" he screamed while his mate was torn apart before his eyes.

Now he was alone. He had to act quickly, or otherwise, all the first years here would die. He was responsible for them, he couldn't leave them.

"Run away, freshman!" he yelled at the stunned first years. "Run as far as you can!"

They broke out in a run, screaming, while Shūhei contacted the Soul Society.

"Soul Society, requesting assistance! This is sixth year student leader, Hisagi Shūhei! Under attack by Huge Hollow at living world point no. 1026 northwest, mark 2128!" he said breathless.

Because he was too busy contacting the Soul Society, he didn't see the hollow forming a cero at him.

He could just dodge it by jumping away. The next moment he was thrown against the wall, and when he looked down at the ground, he saw blood falling down and he felt a soaring pain on the right side of his face.

Damn.

He told Rangiku everything was safe! Why had this to happen? Now Rangiku would never believe him again... If she ever sáw him again...

He looked up, and saw everything had vanished in one big blur of colours.

"Damn. I can't... see ahead clearly."

The biggest blur, probably the hollow, turned in his direction, firing another cero.

With his right eye closed, Shūhei jumped aside to avoid all the ceros being fired at him. Then he jumped at the hollow, only to be thrown away again.

The hollow moved his arm, and his hand which looked like a sword, split open into a couple of swords.

Driven by anger, Shūhei grimaced.

"Even better," he breathed, and he charged at the hollow. "Don't count me out!"

The hollow slashed his sword arm down on him, but before he could react, the hollow was blocked.

Before him stood Aberai Renji, Kira Izuru and Hiniamori Momo, blocking the hollow from slashing Shūhei.

"You guys..." Shūhei said.

"Our deepest apologizes!" Kira said with difficulty, bothered by the pressure of the hollow. "We are disobeying orders!"

"We came to save you, so overlook it, allright senpai?" Renji added.

They slashed the arm of the hollow away, and Hinamori withdrew her sword, pointing her hands at the hollow.

"Ye lord, Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings," she said.

"Ye who bears the name of Man, inferno and pandemonium," Kira followed, blocking the hollow again.

"The sea barrier surges, march on to the south!" Renji ended the incantation.

"Way of destruction, number 31, Red Flame Cannon!" they shouted, all three together.

The three double kido hit the hollow full in the chest, sending the screaming and howling hollow backwards.

"Senpai, now while we've got the chance!" Kira screamed.

"Yeah," Shūhei answered, and they ran away.

"But how could such a big ass hollow get so close?" Renji yelled at Shūhei while running away from the hollow.

"I don't know," Shūhei said. "I've never heard of it, but... it can probably hide its spirit force."

"We can't defeat that hollow with our power!" Kira shouted from behind. "What can we do?"

"I requested assistance from Soul Society," Shūhei answered. "We'll just have to evade it until help comes."

Suddenly, the air trembled and shivered and started to change.

"What's happening?" Kira said, panicking slightly.

"The surroundings... are changing!" Shūhei said, looking around.

Then, the protective kido surrounding and protecting the place, moved like water, and another bunch of huge hollows entered the space.

"Wha-aah?" Kira screamed, his voice breaking.

"It can't be..." Hinamori said, looking up at all the hollows.

"He called his friends," Renji said. "Why can't they party elsewhere?"

"This many huge hollows..." Shūhei said. "It's impossible!"

The huge hollows slowly drew closer and closer to them.

"It's not real... This... No... I don't wanna die. I don't wanna dieeee!" Kira muttered next to Shūhei.

Shūhei breathed low and slowly. He was responsible for them. He would save them, even if that became his own death. Even if it meant never seeing Rangiku again... Never hearing her laugh... Never those innocent pranks and jokes... Never that beautiful, strawberry coloured hair or those tempting lips... No! He would survive! He would live, and rescue everyone here! If only this assistance would hurry up...

A hollow opened his mouth, ready to fire a cero at Kira, who was screaming on top of his lungs.

Then, something flew through the opened mouth of the hollow, killing him. The cero backfired? No, couldn't be. The assistance finally arrived.

The thing turned out to be a sword with an enormous length, slowly withdrawing above their heads.

"Sorry for the wait. We've come to assist." A gentle, warm voice sounded from behind them.

Shūhei turned around, and cursed.

From all the shinigami's walking around in Seireitei... Why?

"You gentlemen are...?" he said with disbelief. "...5th squad... Captain Aizen! Vice-captain Ichimaru?"

That damn fox again. And he was a vice-captain? With a zapakutō? With shikai?

Aizen stopped next to him, and put his hand on Hinamori's head.

"You stuck it out well," he said. "You must've been scared. Everything's all right now. Now you can rest and leave this to us."

Gin grinned at Shūhei. "Long time no see, 69," he said.

"Long time no see, foxface bast-" Shūhei started, but Gin interrupted him.

"Hey, I ám yer superior now, huh? Don't forget that, 69! And you've got... a little blood on your face. Over your right eye..." Gin added with an evil grin.

Shūhei cursed and opened his mouth to answer, but Aizen walked away and Gin walked after him.

They walked right into the little clearing the hollows had left, not showing any signs of fear.

"Wew, this here's quite a number of 'em," Gin said.

He swept down his sword, and pointed it at the hollows.

"Shoot 'em death, Shinsō," Gin said, and the sword extended once again, piercing all the hollows.

One of the hollows swept down its fist at Aizen, but Aizen stopped him with his bare hand. One little movement, and the hollow was also erased from existence.

Feeling very weak, Shūhei stood there, watching them. Why couldn't he be the strong one? Now Gin was going to tell Rangiku how hé had saved Shūhei from a couple of hollows. Luckily, Rangiku didn't thought that high of Gin any more, and luckily they didn't meet that often any more. At least, not that he knew...

Aizen turned around, and smiled at them.

Next to them, Hinamori softly whispered Aizen's name.

"Aizen-taicho..."

Shūhei looked down at her, and gave a little smile.

At least one person was made happy by having exactly thése shinigami's sent as assistance...

* * *

Well,

That was the next chapter already!

It was réally longer than I expected, but I just wanted to finish this in one chapter.

Tell me if this chapter was too lóng again!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	16. Chapter 16

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry it took this long, I'm still trying to update as soon as possible.

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

The first thing Shūhei saw when the senkai opened, was a big strawberry coloured blur running into him. He caught Rangiku, and softly pressed her against his chest.

"Shūhei! You're still alive! They said nearly everyone was killed and... They said... They said you might not survive if help didn't come in time, and... and... I was so scáred..."

Shūhei briefly closed his eyes, and opened them again. Thank god Rangiku wasn't angry at him for telling her everything was safe, when it wasn't.

"Calm down, Rangiku-chan. I'm still alive, because luckily help came in time."

Rangiku released Shūhei and stood on her own feet again. "Who saved you, by the way? Some captain or something?"

"Yeah, the captain and vice-captain o' the fifth squad," a voice from behind Shūhei sounded.

Rangiku peeked over Shūhei's shoulder to see who was there.

"Gin?" she exclaimed. "You saved Shūhei?"

Gin smiled and nodded. "Yeah, but it's Ichimaru-sama now. Or at least Ichimaru-san," he said grinning, stepping away from behind Shūhei.

Rangiku also ran into his arms. "Thank you, Gin," she said, nearly crying. "Thank you for saving Shūhei! Thank you for also being alive yourself! Thank you... Thank you for everything you did!"

Gin folded his arms around Rangiku, and pressed his face in her hair. Her smell, her touch... Everything was so familiar, yet so far away...

"I've missed you," Rangiku whispered so softly only Gin could hear her.

"I missed you even more," Gin whispered back. "More than you can imagine..."

This moment could've lasted forever for Gin, but unfortunately, it didn't.

"Gin, we need to go now," a soft voice said from behind Gin. It was Aizen.

"Yes, Aizen-taicho," Gin said, and he released Rangiku. "I'm coming."

Together with his captain, Gin left the building and left Rangiku behind after one, last look, which said more than a thousand words.

"C'mon, let's go home," Shūhei said.

"Yeah..." Rangiku answered, still a bit distant and with her mind somewhere else.

She hadn't want to have Gin leaving like this.

She told him she missed him.

First, it wasn't more than a simple lie to thank him, and cheer him up. But when she said it, she realized it was true. She did miss him. And she did lo- No, she didn't. She loved Shūhei, because he saved her.

But still there was something weird about Gin, something which pulled her towards him like a magnet. It was like hé had saved her, instead of Shūhei. Like something changed... Of course, she really loved, but with Gin it was different. It sat deeper, and it hurt more. She wanted the hurting to stop, but she could only do that by hurting someone else. By hurting Shūhei...

She shrugged, and allowed Shūhei to lay his arm around her shoulders, and drag her home.

"They really think he's talented, don't they?" Shūhei said, waking Rangiku up from her thoughts

"Huh, what?" Rangiku asked. Without her noticing, they already arrived at their house, and she was still standing at the doorstep.

Shūhei smiled, and walked back to Rangiku. "Dreaming again, Rangiku-chan? I said that the Soul Society really thinks Gin is a genius, do they?"

Rangiku nodded absently, not feeling very well. She didn't know someone could make her feel like this.

The next morning, when Rangiku woke up, she realised it wasn't Gin who made her feel like that. It was fever. She felt like she was burning away, and her limbs were heavy. And when she raised her head to see if Shūhei was any near her, black spots started dancing in front of her eyes.

Dizzy, Rangiku laid down again. Shūhei walked into the room, already dressed. "Hey, c'mon, sleepy head, you need to- Hey, are you all right?" he added worried when he saw Rangiku's face.

Rangiku carefully shook her head, trying not to become any dizzier than she already was.

Shūhei knelt down next to her, and felt her forehead. "You've got quite a fever," he said worried. "Maybe I should stay home and-"

"P-please, Shūhei, d-don't," Rangiku said, and she was shocked by hearing her own weak voice. "J-just go to school... You h-have your exams now, r-right?"

Shūhei bit on his lip, but then nodded. "It won't take long, I'll be back in no time..."

Rangiku nodded back, closed her eyes, and went back to a hot, uneasy sleep.

She only woke up because something cold was trickling down her neck.

Carefully, Rangiku opened her eyes, expecting to see Shūhei. She frowned when she saw a black with white spot in front of her. Shūhei's robes weren't black and white, but white and blue. And even when he passed his exams, he shouldn't get his uniform today already. That could only mean...

"Heya, Ran-chan, finally awake?" a very familiar voice said.

Rangiku wanted to sit up straight immediately, but Gin pushed her back.

"Don't move, Ran-chan, Shūhei would kill me if he knew I made ya move or somethin'."

Rangiku stared at the person in front of her. The person she loved the most after Shūhei. Or maybe even as much as Shūhei. Or maybe, máybe even more...

"Ichimaru-san, what are you doing here? And why?" Rangiku whispered, not in state to talk normal.

Gin smiled, and stroke her hot forehead. "I told Shūhei he must call me Ichimaru now, but I'll always be Gin for you."

Rangiku weakly returned his smile. "That's still no answer Ichim-... Gin."

Gin grinned softly. "Well, I got a day off because of my hard work, so I decided to pay ya a visit. I walked past the academy, because that's the fastest route, when Shūhei rushed towards me. He told me ya were ill, and asked me if I could keep an eye on ya. And because I was already wantin' to visit you, I couldn't say no, could I? So that's why I'm here with ya~!"

"You got a day off, and then you want to see mé? I mean, I really miss you, but... but... Am I worth thát?"

Gin's smiled even wider at her, and laid down next to her.

"Well, you got Shūhei now, don't ya?" he said laughing. "But you weren't supposed to have him, though," he added, now serious.

"What do you mean?" Rangiku asked a bit worried.

"Let me tell ya the past and present ya are supposed to have. Let me tell ya the truth which was hidden by the wish of a man who loved ya, but could never get ya. Let me tell ya about the power of a wish, wished with a fallin' star. Let me tell you everything which caused me to lose ya..."

* * *

Well,

This was the next chapter already...

Finally, Rangiku is going to know the truth, how it's supposed to be. But if she's gonna believe it...

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	17. Chapter 17

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry it took this long, I'm still trying to update as soon as possible, but school was in my way of updating... So I set a limit for myself: Valentine's day. I just nééded to update on Valentine's day! So, here you are~!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Rangiku was lying in her bed, looking to Gin who was next to her. "The truth? How it's supposed to be? What do you mean with all that?"

Gin shifted a bit uncomfortably on the place he was sitting, and smiled "Well, when ya were young, ya nearly starve to death, huh? And then ya were found by Shūhei. He rescued ya, brought ya to his home and stayed by yer side until ya recovered, and ya'all lived happily together. Well, imagine, just imagine okay? Just imagine ya weren't saved by Shūhei, but someone else. Somehow, you still met Shūhei, and he was incredibly in love with ya, like he's now, but ya're not. Well, that's what happened."

Rangiku frowned. "What do you mean? I mean, Shūhei is still living with me, so I don't know what's wrong..."

Gin took a deep breath, and after hesitating for a moment, he finally spoke. "I'm the one that's supposed to be with ya, and Shūhei is the one who's in love with ya, but not with ya."

Rangiku stared at the shinigami in front of her. Was this a little lie to confess her he was in love with her, or was he really telling what he thought was the truth?

"I... Are you sure?" Rangiku said uncertain.

Gin nodded. "Hell yeah!"

"But, I mean... Are you really meaning that? Is it really the truth? Is it not just a little lie, an indirect way to tell me you love me? I mean, I also-"

"No. It's not. It's the truth, Rangiku, believe me!" Gin pleaded. "Once in the hundred years a wish is granted when wished during a falling star. Shūhei got the power of that wish, and used it to change the past, and let you love him!"

Rangiku sighed, not knowing what to believe. "Sorry, I don't believe in fairy tails any more. And how do you know all that?"

"Shūhei told me. Just after we passed the entrance exam, he cornered me and threatened me not to take ya away from him. He said he saw a falling star, not at night, but durin' the day. And it wasn't seen by anyone else, so he guessed it was a sign from the future. Half a minute later he found ya starvin' to death, while somethin' inside him said you weren' supposed to be there! I was supposed to rescue you..."

Rangiku grinned softly. "It's a nice story, and really Gin, I like you too, but sorry, I don't believe it..."

"But Rangiku! It's not believing, or not believing, it's the truth!" Gin said, helpless.

Rangiku sighed again, but it wasn't helpless or undecided any more. It was irritated.

"Gin, if you're only here to irritate me, please leave..." she said.

Gin opened his mouth, but closed it again. Then he looked up at Rangiku, tears leaking out of the corners of his closed eyes. "Please, Rangiku..."

But Rangiku shook her head. "Sorry, Gin, no..."

Gin stood up. "Then I must go, Rangiku. I can't stay here any longer if you think I'm a liar while you were supposed to love me..."

Rangiku now really started to be irritated. "Ah, just shut it! I'm not supposed to be anything! Just shut those lies and leave! You wanted to leave, huh? Well, do it right now, or I'll kick you out of my house!"

"Shūhei's house..." Gin muttered while walking to the door.

Rangiku breathed deeply in and out, and then she stood up, and wanted to run to Gin to push him out of the house, when her illness took over her mind and body. Just before everything went black, she saw two amazingly blue eyes looking very worried at her, and running to her to catch her before she hit the ground.

When Rangiku was concious again, she was lying in her bed again, and two people were arguing.

"You wouldn't upset her! You promised! Is she worth nothing to you?" That was Shūhei.

"She's worth the whole god dammed world to me! Her life is worth more than mine! I only told her the god damned truth that the future you needed to ruin!" That was Gin. Was he still here? And did he really mean that?

"I don't care about it! It changed, so what? Bad luck for you! Shit happens, and life sucks. Sucked. Now my life doesn't suck any more, and now you're the one with a ruined life who needs to watch his biggest love in love with another person!"

"You really don't care about her, huh? At least, not as much as I do! The only thing you care about is ruining my life as much as possible, to take revenge for something that's supposed to happen, and thus never happened!"

"I care about both!" Shūhei spat in Gin's face.

"So you really care about ruining my life? I thought it was only my imagination..." Gin said, his voice as cold as ice.

Rangiku couldn't believe it. Was Shūhei really such a harsh person?

"Well, I don't care about it! Just get your god damned face out of my house now, before Rangiku wakes up! I'm fine with her believing you're a liar."

"Well, then you're too late..." Rangiku said.

Shūhei turned around, and looked down at the girl he loved so much he wanted to do anything for her. Say everything. Do everything. Ruin everything. Even a life...

* * *

Well,

Maybe not a really happy Valentine's chapter, but it's better than no chapter XD

Aww, poor Gin... I really hate ruining his life like this... But yeah, the show must go on!

Hope you liked this chapter! I'll try to update sooner, seeing to holiday is nearly there, but my school is more in the way of updating than ever!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	18. Chapter 18

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry it took this long, I'm still trying to update as soon as possible, but school was in my way of updating...

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Shūhei looked down at Rangiku. Why. Why did she have to wake up at thís moment? At the moment when he told Gin everything, which made him a liar, was true?

"Shūhei," Rangiku whispered, tears starting to leak out of her eyes. "Why?"

Helpless, Shūhei stared down at her. "Rangiku... I..."

"I thought I was living in a truth with just one liar..." Rangiku said, her voice weak due to her tears but also due to her fever. "But now it seems I was living in one big lie with just one person speaking the truth..."

"Rangiku... I-I didn't know..."

"Yes ya did! Ya told me yerself! And then ya call me a liar!" Gin said fiercely.

"But I wasn't sure... I just... Rangiku..."

"Sorry, Shūhei... I just can't believe you. None of you both..." She added when Gin smirked at Shūhei. "I mean, with believing you, I'll hurt Gin, and otherwise... And I both love you and don't want to hurt any of you..."

Rangiku stood up, not paying attention to her dizziness. She ran out of the house as far as she could, when black spots started dancing for her eyes.

"Oh, not now!" Rangiku said irritated before everything went black. Before she lost her conscious, she could just mutter: "Why always me?"

"Because it's fate, Ran-chan..." Gin said, while he just caught her before she hit the ground.

He carefully lifted her up in his arms, and carried her back to Shūhei's home, which was now also hers, even though it wasn't supposed to be like that.

He put her down on her futon and sat down next to her, and Shūhei also sat down at her other side.

"We're really troubelin' her, aren't we?" Gin asked sadly.

Shūhei nodded. "Maybe we should stop with all this, and make an agreement or something. To leave her alone with love until she passed the academy and becomes a shinigami. I bet we're going to be in different squads, and whose squads she joins, that's the person who may be her lover. Then she chooses herself, even if she doesn't really notice it."

"And what when she joins neither yours or mine squad?" Gin asked, slightly grinning.

"Then the hunting is opened..." Shūhei answered, also grinning.

Gin laughed softly. "Okay, I agree... It's the best for Rangiku, so it should be the best."

Then they both looked down at the lovely girl in their middle. The girl they were both fighting for, the girl they would both die for, but both with their own memories, false and true.

Gin remembered how she used to run after him, screaming at him to tell her where he was going.

"I'm so sorry, Ran-chan..." he muttered. "When I finally reach you far enough, and when you see the truth, I'll never do that again..."

Shūhei remembered how she was now. Everything they did together, and everything they were going to do.

"Hey, Gin," he said then. "I think we need to cheer Rangiku up a bit when she is all healthy again, don't you?"

Gin nodded absently, still half drowned in his thoughts and memories.

"So I was thinking," Shūhei said, cutting through Gin's stream of thoughts. "Maybe we could have a picnic, and then you must come along. I was thinking at going to-"

"Are you serious?" Gin asked, who finally woke up completely out of his thoughts. "Are you really inviting me? I mean, she's still yours now, and you have to profit of it, don't you?"

Shūhei grinned. "I'm not that egocentric. I've seen you really love and care about her. And it isn't just you who does that. Rangiku also cares about you, and maybe she even loves you, though maybe she doesn't realize it herself."

Gin stared at Shūhei who was saying the very things he was hoping for. "...Really?"

"That night you graduated, I saw you saying goodbye to each other," Shūhei said. "First, I was angry at you for kissing her without anything, but when you left, I noticed she was crying. And when I think everything all over again, it was more Rangiku who kissed you, than you kissing Rangiku. So I think, somewhere deep down below, her love for you is kept safely from the power from my wish..."

"Shūhei," Gin said. "I first thought ya were an asshole, keepin' Rangiku all for yourself. But now I hear all this, I finally realize why Rangiku fell for ya when she got a little help from yer wish. Ya're an amazing fellow and ya have yer heart on tha right place..."

Shūhei smiled gratefully back at Gin. "Thank you, mate. You're also better than I thought... Maybe we can become even friends in the period when we leave Rangiku a sort of alone."

"Yeah, maybe..." Gin replied, grinning. "I mean, everythin' has changed, so why not change it even more... But when were ya plannin' to do that picnic? And do I need to do anythin'? I mean, I heard ya're a great cook, but I can't let ya do everythin' that's needed..."

"I was planning to do it as soon as Rangiku has recovered. And maybe you can select the place where you want to picnic? And carry everything when we're walking towards there?" he added, clearly joking.

They softly laughed to not wake up the little girl in their midst. The girl that was the reason of the change of the past, present and future. The girl that was worth the world to two unlucky fellows, who both loved her, and as unlucky for her it was she also loved both of them, which made it so hard to choose...

* * *

Hey,

I really had problems filling this chapter, so I started craptaking. Bad me...

I was thinking... Am I not making it too dramatic? Isn't it turning into Bleach's Twilight, with team Gin and Team Shūhei, like Team Jacob and Team Edward?

I'll try to make it a bit more realistic and funny the next time...

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	19. Chapter 19

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry it took this long, I'm still trying to update as soon as possible, but school was in my way of updating...

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

**~Edit~ **Thanks to my mummy, my fanfic is grammatically checked again, and mistakes are taken out~!

* * *

Shūhei was walking through the forest, carrying the things they needed for their picnic. Gin was walking next to him, also carrying the necessary things.

"It's so beautiful here... And I've never been in this part of the forest before..." Rangiku said, who was walking in front of them. "Thank you so much for doing this, both of you!"

Shūhei nearly couldn't keep his eye of her. She was so beautiful. Her features had received their softness and beauty again, and all the signs of her previous hard days had vanished. But he couldn't tell her how much he loved her. Not with that promise he made. Maybe he didn't like Gin that much, but Shūhei's a man who'll keep his promises, no matter what and to who.

"Ah, well... My exams are over, so I have all the time for doing this. And I'm going to sign up for the Gotei 13 in a few weeks, so until then I can relax a bit..." Shūhei said.

"An' Aizen-taichou gave me some days off to spend with friends as a sort of "holiday". Seein' ya are the only ones who are the closest to me so who I have to call friends," Gin added with a playful teasing undertone to Shūhei, who only grinned. "I have to spend them with ya, don't I?"

Rangiku smiled at him, and ran further to a little clearing in the forest.

"Oh..." was all she could see when she entered the flowery meadow.

It was a little meadow, full of flowers and high grass in which you could hide perfectly well. There was also a little stream in the middle of the meadow, and at the edges, the grass was some shorter and on some places pushed flat.

"I think this would be a nice place to picnic..." Gin said airy.

"Nice? Nice? It's beautiful!" Rangiku exclaimed when she found her voice again.

Gin just plainly smiled at her, and didn't do anything else.

This surprised Rangiku. Usually, when she complimented Gin, he smirked at Shūhei with a manner of "Hah, she thinks I'm better than you!"

But now he didn't do anything but just friendly smile.

She also noticed that Shūhei, who was usually as close as possible to her, also created some distance between them. Did she do something wrong? It was nice not having two fighting boys by your side, who couldn't exchange a friendly word, but it also wasn't that nice to be almost ignored.

"Somethin' wrong, Ran-chan?" Gin asked, waking her up from her thoughts while putting the things down for the picnic.

"What? Oh, no, I was just thinking..." Rangiku said.

Seeing Rangiku didn't want to talk, Gin decided a change of subject.

"Finally a qualified student, eh? Shūhei?" he said, sitting down.

Shūhei smiled, also sitting down. "Yep. As soon as I got my certificate or whatever it was, I signed up for the Gotei 13. Now I only need to be placed in a decent squad. That's what we're going to do tomorrow. Then, after that day, it's my first, real day as a shinigami. I also need to move in the barracks of my squad tomorrow, and all those things."

Rangiku bit her lip, not trying to spoil Shūhei's good mood about finally becoming a shinigami. Shé needed to wait another year before she could finally do all that. And waiting wasn't the problem.

Shūhei was going to move into Seireitei because he was close at hand then, and he just could carry out his job much easier. But people from Rukongai weren't often allowed into Seireitei, and surely not to stay there. Of course, he said she could come by to visit him as often as she wanted. But still, at night, she would be the only one in their home...

"Are you sure everythin' is all right, Ran-chan? Ya seem to be on the verge of tears..."

"I-I just said I was completely fine, didn't I?" Rangiku quickly stuttered. "And I'm not in any way sad about Shūhei moving away and joining the Gotei 13 and me being alone and... And..."

"Oh, thát was bothering you!" Shūhei said, and he wanted to put his arm around Rangiku to comfort her, but Gin was quicker. He gently put his arm around her shoulder. But it was different from than he would do before the promise they made.

Usually, he would put his arms around Rangiku as a lover. Now he put his arms around her as a friend. Maybe it wouldn't seem such a difference if you just looked at it for a second, but when you really paid attention, you would see the difference.

"Always look at the bright side, Ran-chan. Now you finally don't have to cook and clean for two, there isn't an irritating lazy fathead in your home any more and-"

"Fathead?" Shūhei interrupted Gin, laughing, and Rangiku also smiled a watery smile. "Nicely said, foxface... But I think I would prefer moron..."

"Yeah, or pervert," Rangiku said without thinking.

Both Shūhei and Gin burst into laughter when the little girl in their midst said this with such a serious and maybe still even a sad face.

"Ran-chan," Shūhei said, while Gin couldn't talk due to his laughing about Shūhei. "You're funnier than you ever can imagine!"

"Yeah, sure..." Rangiku said, turning a bit red. "And jeez', your hair is really becoming longer with the day! Maybe you should have a decent haircut before you join the Gotei 13. I don't think they would accept a punkie, even when his scores are that high, huh?"

This only caused Gin and Shūhei to laugh even more, and this time, Rangiku also remembered how to laugh again...

* * *

Well,

That's already it for this chapter!

And yeah, it aren't just loose words, Shūhei really is going to get a hair cut! In Colour Bleach (the Bleach Official Bootleg) was mentioned by Shūhei that he had a new haircut for his days in Seireitei. So I thought: Why aren't we going to mess up Shūhei's hair the next chapter ^-^

So, get your scissors ready~!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	20. Chapter 20

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry it took this long, I'm still trying to update as soon as possible, but school was in my way of updating... And I also camped with a bit of a writers block, so there might be some crap talk down here ^-^

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu!**

* * *

Rangiku was sitting behind Shūhei on their picnic site, with a pair of scissors ready in her hand.

"Are you sure you want me to do this?" she asked while stroking his hair back to the back of his neck.

"Just start now before he's got time to think about it, Ran-chan," Gin said cheerfully grinning. He was sitting next to Rangiku and seemingly already enjoying the thought of Rangiku messing up Shūhei's hair.

Rangiku took a deep breath. "Okay, let's get on with it. But don't blame me if I mess it up, right?"

Shūhei nodded. "I trust you. So don't disappoint me, okay?"

Rangiku smiled nervously, and started trimming. Hair fell down around Shūhei while Rangiku concentrated stared at the shortening hair in front of her.

After a few minutes, the work was done.

"And?" Shūhei asked Gin nervously.

"Well..." Gin said hesitating. "It's nicely done. And it is some shorter, but..."

"But what?" Shūhei panicked.

"It's a bit too short..."

"No!" Shūhei said, leaning forwards to see his reflection in the water of the near stream.

"I look like a little school boy..." he whispered softly and slightly disappointed.

"Er... At least you're not punk any more?" Rangiku said carefully. "Look, Shūhei, I'm sorry..." she added softly when she saw the look on Shūhei's face. "I said I wasn't to be trusted with your hair..."

Shūhei smiled a watery smile. "Doesn't matter, Rangiku, it's not your fault. And maybe it's a bit short, but it's very nicely done. And it all goes about your inner self, not about your appearance..."

"Yeah, but not when it's about a girl, isn't it, perverty-chan?" Gin said laughing.

Shūhei also laughed. "Yeah, thank you, foxface..."

Rangiku also laughed a faint smile. Sure, she really liked the fact they didn't fight any more, and made up, but still she was disappointed of not being that special and wanted any more...

Ah, whatever, maybe she mustn't complain that much.

"S-shall we go home then?" Rangiku said carefully.

Still laughing and joking, Shūhei and Gin started clearing up the picnic. Rangiku tried to help, but was gently pushed away all the time she reached forward to pick something up.

A few minutes later they threw a last glance at their picnic spot, and then they left.

Rangiku slowly walked after Shūhei and Gin who were both talking and laughing. But not to her.

Multiple times she tried to start a conversation, but every time she was gently pushed out of it because it always took the turn to the Gotei 13 from which Rangiku didn't know anything at all.

"And then you've got the ninth squad. I know their captain quite well, actually, though I'm not in the ninth squad." Gin said, continuing his tale about all the squads. "Their captain, Tōsen Kaname, is blind, but fighting for justice. He will do everything to achieve justice in this mere world."

Shūhei nodded slowly. "Sounds all right... Maybe I'll join that squad..."

Gin opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something to bring Shūhei of this idea, but he closed it again, deciding not to say anything.

"Well, just a few days left, and then you have to make your choice, pervy-chan~!" Gin decided to say after a few silent seconds.

Rangiku sighed. For her, it was a few days and another year...

A few minutes later, they came at the crosspoint of the way to Gin's home and the one to Shūhei's home.

Rangiku threw a furtive look at the two boys in front of her. Would they even notice when she would turn left while they turned right? And íf they noticed, would they just shrug and continue talking or even be relieved to be lost of that burden?

Rangiku decided just to try it, she could always make something up when they noticed it.

Rangiku started walking more and more to the other side of the path, and when they finally reached the crosspoint, Rangiku threw one last look at Shūhei and Gin. "I'm so sorry..." she whispered, tears starting to leak out of her eyes. "But now it's my turn to leave someone..."

She quickly dived into the other way, to Gin's home, and hid in the bushes until they were a good time away. Then she started to run.

Gin looked up when he heard the distant sound of crunching leaves and breaking branches.

"Did you hear that?" he asked Shūhei.

Shūhei looked up. "What? Oh, must be a sort of animal or something. Something like a deer or so."

"Ah, okay..." Gin muttered, still staring in the distance, with the feeling something went terribly wrong.

"C'mon, let's walk further. Or otherwise Rangiku'll catch a cold again, heh Rangiku?" Shūhei added laughing.

"Rangiku?" he exclaimed, nervously looking around when he didn't hear a reaction. "Where is she? She was walking right behind us?"

Gin just stood there like turned into a stone statue right on the spot.

"Maybe our tactic to leave her alone for her own sake didn't work..." Gin said when he found his voice back again.

Shūhei nodded, seemingly paler than first. He looked in the direction of the distance noises which were growing fainter and fainter. The direction in which the love of his live was running away...

* * *

Hey,

Hmmm... It really turned into a quite short and really rappy chapter... Sorry... :(

Any way, I'll make the next one longer and nicer~!

See ya next chapter,

SeireiteiFantasy.


	21. Chapter 21

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Finally one that took a rather short one to write~! Hope the quality doesn't go down because of that -.- Any way, hope you like it!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku was running through the forest as fast as she could. Branches of trees were sweeping in her face, and tree roots weren't helping that much either. Her whole vision was also blurred due to her tears, which didn't make it easy to see if she was still going in the right direction. She had only walked this way once before, but she knew she was going the right way.

When she finally reached her destination, she couldn't hold on any longer, and fell down on her knees, crying. She didn't really know why she was crying, but it just had to get out.

She really hated herself for being so selfish.

Shūhei and Gin could finally be together in peace, and then she wasn't satisfied again because she wasn't getting enough attention.

She had to stop with it.

She had to stop depending on those boys so much, but get them out of her mind and have a happy life without love being the most important thing. She had to start to do things like she wanted them, and because she liked to do it, and not just to make someone happy without being compensated for it.

Rangiku took a few deep breaths, and stood up. Today would be the first day of hér life!

She waited until it became dark, and then she slept back to Shūhei's home to see if he was already gone, and to get her stuff. She didn't know why he would stay there any longer when she wasn't there. She waited a while before some clouds blocked the moonlight, and then she entered the open field.

She quickly ran over the field without making any noise, and quickly hid in the shadows under the roof. Then she looked inside through the window.

Shūhei was lying on the ground, close to his futon, but too far that he just would have rolled off it in his sleep.

She couldn't see that much apart from that, because of the darkness, but when the moon appeared again behind the clouds that drove away on the wind, the little house was lit again.

Shūhei was lying on the ground, close to his futon, but not that close that it seemed he just rolled off it while sleeping. He was also fully dressed, and close to his hand were lying a few bottles that Rangiku recognized as sake bottles.

Rangiku sighed deeply, and then she walked to the door. After hesitating for a moment, she entered the building.

First, she searched for all her stuff and laid if down next to the door. Then she walked back to Shūhei , careful not to block the moonlight from his face and so maybe waking him up.

She just stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do. Then she sighed heavily, and shook her head. She knelt down next to him, and gently pushed him on his futon, and laid his blanket over him. Then she stroke his hair softly out of his face.

"I'm so sorry, Shūhei... But I just couldn't say farewell to you on a proper way. And I'm too selfish to accept not being love, I admit that... Could you please forgive me?" she whispered. A tear slided down her cheek, and dropped on Shūhei 's face. Shūhei blinked for a few moments, with still that same hard, nearly painful look on his face.

Rangiku briefly closed her eyes, and stood up. Then she walked to the doorway and picked up her stuff. Then, after throwing one last look at Shūhei , she ran away as fast as she could.

She ran like she was followed by the devil himself, and kept throwing anxious looks over her shoulder.

She had the feeling she was being followed by someone.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a scream tore through the night. Rangiku stopped immediately, and after hesitating for a moment, she walked to the place where she had heard the screaming.

There, on a clearing between the trees, three men stood around something that was lying on the ground.

"Nostalgic, not?" the largest one of them spoke, and Rangiku recognized him as a captain. "Remember when we did this at Shinji and his mates? Back then, you were still very little, but a soul reaper already. But yeah, you were already a soul reaper when you went to the academy for the second time, only for that girl."

"Nah, also because I liked it. Going to the academy for just one year is just too short... That's why I had to redo my school, because they didn't believe it..." one of the others spoke, and with a shock Rangiku recognized him as Gin. "But yeah, maybe it was a bit weird. But that's what I am..."

"Yeah, the captain-commander has always been a bit sceptical against things he can't accept. The old fool..."

"Shouldn't we hurry now, Aizen-sama?" the third one spoke. "I don't want anyone to find us here. I mean, your position as captain is in danger if we stay here for any longer."

Rangiku crept some further behind the tree, while the first one, apparently Aizen, answered him.

"Yes, allright, Kaname. Finish him, Gin, and let us go then to have some tea."

"Yes, Aizen-taicho," Gin said, and he unsheathed his sword. A few second later, the sound of a sword cutting through flesh and the sounds of the splashing of blood echoed through the night.

Then Gin sheathed his sword again, and they left without any other words.

Rangiku waited a few minutes, until they were completely out of sight, and then she went out of her hiding place.

She slowly walked to the person lying on the ground, for as far you could still name it a person.

There was blood everywhere, but that wasn't the worst.

A large, white, hollow-like mask covered the face of the person, and when Rangiku knelt down next to the culprit, she also noticed a hole in the chest of the person.

Rangiku carefully touched the mask, now cracked by Gin. When she touched it, it suddenly vanished, together with the person, only leaving a heap of clothes behind.

Rangiku closed her eyes. "Gin..." she spoke softly. "What on earth are you doing?".

She stood up, and turned around, facing the one she had always secretly admired.

* * *

Hey,

This is the next chapter~!

It came quite soon because I had inspiration, and not that much homework ;)

In the next chapter: the (re)start of the fight between Gin and Rangiku. Will they both survive?

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	22. Chapter 22

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"I already thought someone was spying on us..." Gin said airy, smiling like usual.

"Why," Rangiku asked, folding her arms. "I thought you were a kind and reasonable man. Someone who would protect the innocent, and not just murder them after playing with them. Someone who would fight the evil instead of being it. Someone... Someone I fancied and someone I could love..."

"Rangiku..." Gin said, now with a pained look on his face. "You wouldn't understand..."

"Well try it, then!" Rangiku said, sweeping her hair over her back with a short move.

"I- I just can't..." Gin said. "You saw what he was like, he would kill me if he knew I told you..."

"So you just kill an innocent man, just to save yoursélf?" Rangiku exclaimed with a breaking voice.

"Rangiku..." Gin said sighing. "Please... I didn't do it to save myself, but you! All I wanted to do was protect you from any harm he could do to you..."

"Why would he want to hurt me?" Rangiku said, slightly confused.

"To convince me to work with him..."

"Why would he want you to work with you?" Rangiku asked. "And why would he target me to achieve that?"

"It's a long, long story, but to make it short: we used to be together. We used to love each other deeply, and care for each other deeply. But Shūhei ruined it all by wishing that the past would changed, and that hé would become your deeply loved one..."

"Yeah, sure!" Rangiku said. "Gin, why don't you just speak the truth for one time? And just say you're jealous? I'm getting sick of your lies!"

"It ís the truth Rangiku, believe me!" Gin said, really panicking now. "Please, Ran-chan..."

He walked towards her, and took her face in his hands and looked down at her, begging to be believed.

"Please..." he whispered.

But Rangiku stepped afterwards, her eyes staring down at the ground.

"Sorry, Gin... No... I just can't believe you..."

And with this, she turned around and wanted to run away, but Gin grabbed her sleeve.

Rangiku looked around, fearing for such a violent reaction like Shūhei had.

But Gin just looked at her, his eyes wide open and full of fear, misery and pain. "I'm sorry Rangiku..." he whispered, and tears welled up in his eyes.

Then he released her.

Rangiku didn't know what to do after she saw that truthful, pained look on his face, and the tears in his eyes. Was he really speaking the truth?

But how could you change the past? If he'd came up with a better excuse, she'd maybe believed him, but this just couldn't be the truth in her eyes.

And with shaking her head at Gin one last time, tears also welling up in her eyes, Rangiku ran away.

She ran away from all the problems. Away from all the pain and misery. Away from the one who was speaking the uncanny truth or a bad lie...

She ran until she was out of breath, not wanting to think, not wanting to believe or to deny. She just had to go on... And on... And on...

And on.

She was running in the wrong direction, but she didn't care. She didn't want to turn around.

Back to all the misery, back to all the pain.

It became darker and darker.

And then everything was black.

Rangiku didn't see where she was going, but she still continued running. Her body was starting to protest against the running, but she didn't cease for a moment.

In the east, the sun started to come up, and Rangiku saw where she was. She was near the gates of the Seireitei now. If she didn't stop running now, she would or get the seireitei wall on her back, or she would be arrested for entering Seireitei.

But she didn't care.

She kept running and saw the wall coming closer and closer.

But she didn't have to make the decision of stopping or not, because her body stopped moving, her hart nearly stopped beating, and Rangiku collapsed a few yards away from the Seireitei wall.

Someone clad in black with a white obi, white socks and tabi landed next to her. Someone with silver hair. Someone who smiled every minute of the day.

Someone used to smile.

Someone who wouldn't smile any more, for the rest of his misery life.

Someone who was broken.

Someone who broke.

Someone who would go to the end of the world for his love.

Someone called Ichimaru Gin.

Gin stood next to Rangiku, carrying all her stuff, and shaking his head. "Ran-chan, what are you doing to yourself... And what are you doing to me? I was the one who used to hurt. But now you're doing it, and I experienced how painful it is... Sorry for hurting you Rangiku, I'll never do it again, I promise you. I'll protect you, live for you and die for you. But please stop hurting me and see the truth..."

Then he carefully lifted Rangiku up in his arms, together with all her stuff, and left in the direction of her home. Which wasn't his any more...

* * *

Hey,

Mhuhaha, it's going fast now~!

Mah, I just have inspiration ^-^

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	23. Chapter 23

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry for the last one, when I reread it, I saw it was a bit crappy... :/ Any way, I'll try to make this one better~!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku awoke with a shock, breathing heavily. Her body was aching all over, but she didn't pay attention to that.

She tried to figure out where she was, when she saw something black turning around the doorway.

Immediately, Rangiku jumped on her feet and ran to the doorway.

She saw Gin running away from her, and now she also recognized where she exactly was. She was at Gin's home.

The little house that once wás Gin's home...

He was now living in the Seireitei barracks of course, abandoning his home to be taken by another stray, poor Rukongaier.

Rangiku closed her eyes, not wanting to say what she wanted to say.

Not daring to ask what was on her hart.

But in the end, she couldn't hold it any longer.

"Gin, where are you going?" she yelled, but her voice was no more than a whisper, impossible to be heard.

"You idiot..." she said, tears leaking out of her eyes. "You stupid idiot..."

She removed the tears out of her eyes with a rough move. Again she was crying about such a stupid guy, who was making a mess of her life.

It was only now that she realized that she couldn't live with him, but also not without him...

_"But when the truth wasn't changed, yet, ya were supposed that you only couldn't live without me!" _Rangiku heard Gin saying in her mind.

No.

If that really was what that liar thought, she preferred living without him...

She sighed deeply, and then she looked up again, smiling, and with a vital power in her eyes. Today, she was going to líve!

She dressed herself, after she found the stuff Gin left by her bedside, and then she left for the academy.

She was greeted by the friends she made in school when Gin left the class, and together with them, she survived the lessons, and chatted with them during breaks.

When school was out, Rangiku always supposed to go home with Shūhei . But now he wasn't there any more, Rangiku decided to go and hang out in the shops with her "new" friends.

Half an hour later, they were still standing in the first shop they entered. The first ten minutes, Rangiku had kinda liked it. Trying on make-up on each other, and just having fun.

But after ten minutes, Rangiku felt like she had already tried everything in the shop, but her friends said they were only getting to start when Rangiku asked them how long they were going to stand there after fifteen minutes.

Bored, Rangiku looked out of the shop window, when a group of shinigami's walked past the shop.

With a shock, Rangiku recognized Shūhei in the front line. She nearly ran out of the shop, after him, and plead him on her knees to forgive her, but her pride wouldn't let her so that.

Instead of that, she walked casually out of the shop, after telling her "friends" she needed a drink. Then she walked past Shūhei without giving any sign of noticing him, but by Shūhei 's gasp she heard he also noticed her.

She walked into a little alleyway between two shops, walked a few yards, turned around, and wasn't surprised to see Shūhei standing there.

He was wearing the usual shinigami uniform, and she also saw he still had the scratches on his cheek. Grinning, she also discovered the little "69" on Shūhei 's cheek.

She only remembered too well the day it was set, and how he couldn't stop talking about Kensei who saved their lives.

Rangiku also noticed he swapped the spike collar he usually wore in his academy days, wasn't there any more.

He was so different, and yet he was the same.

They stood there for a while, until Rangiku was the first one that spoke.

"Who was the person leading you?"

"That's my captain, Tōsen-taicho. He's the most amazing man, all fighting for justice and- "

"I wouldn't trust him," Rangiku interrupted him. She had recognized him. He was also there that night with Gin and Aizen, and he was the one that beckoned Aizen to go back. Was he also a captain? Never mind. Him being a captain only made his deeds worse.

"Why not? You don't even know him! Rangiku, I would put my life on the line for him! He's all for justice, why would he be bad?"

"I surely wouldn't trust him in the company of Aizen and... some others," Rangiku added, not paying attention to what Shūhei just said. She just couldn't mention his name. Gin's name. It was like burning a hole in her tongue. The hatred, pain and confusion welled up in her only by thinking at him. And yet she couldn't stop thinking.

"I saw him last night together with Aizen and... another man I didn't hear the name of and didn't recognize. That night, a man died. By his hands..."

"Rangiku, now you're lying!" Shūhei said sternly. "He's a man who fights for justice, and he wouldn't even húrt the innocent. Don't start blaming him like that or-"

"I saw it with my own eyes! Say one reason why I would lie, Hisagi Shūhei! Is it because I'm getting sick of the lie I'm living in? Is it because I hear two different lies from two persons I loved? Do you think I would still lie after being convinced about one lie after another? I can't trust the truth any more, why would I send another lie into the world? Why would I? Tell me, Hisagi Shūhei !" Rangiku said. She didn't want to say it, but when Shūhei acted like she was lying the world together, she couldn't hold it any more.

Again those tears. When would they finally stop flowing? Hadn't she already spent enough tears for one whole life?

Shūhei took Rangiku's face in his hands.

"I'm so sorry Rangiku, but this, I just can't believe..."

Then he softly kissed her, and wiped the tears of her face.

Then he left, and ran to his captain who was waiting for him. When Rangiku's and Tōsen 's visions crossed, Rangiku did a step backwards. She knew he knew it. Although he was blind, he recognized her then and now.

And then he smiled at her.

He smiled like he knew the thing she was dreading was true. The thought that Shūhei was just a mere puppet in the game Tōsen , Gin and Aizen were playing, and that would probably end in treason.

And Rangiku just stood there until her friends gathered around her and started laughing and giggling around her and talking about the fact that Shūhei had kissed Rangiku and that she had a relation with a real, graduated, handsome shinigami.

But Rangiku just still stood there. "Maybe it may seem like that, but actually everything is just one big lie..."

* * *

Hey,

Whihooo~! The updates are going fast now~!

It's really hard to put all these little pieces of flash backs and shown history from the main story into the right order into a nice Fanfiction... I hope I'm not doing it all wrong, and when it isn't... Aah, whatever, as long as it is a nice story to read, I think it's okay ^-^

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	24. Chapter 24

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku was looking around in the little house in which Gin left her one year ago.

Tonight was the graduate ball, but Rangiku wasn't really in the mood for it. She was planning just to pick up her certificate, smile for a few seconds, and then say her friends goodbye.

The reason why she wasn't fancying a ball, was because of the rumour that was spread the few past days. It was said that there would be a real captain and vice-captain who would hand out the certificates, and after this they would join the ball!

So there was a chance of one out of thirteen Gin was going to be there. And knowing fate, this would be so.

She wasn't that afraid to face Shūhei. Sure, she hurt him more than Gin, but he wasn't a vice-captain. And last time she saw him he was looking so worn out, like he was working his ass off, so he wouldn't do things like this in his free time, but take plenty of rest instead.

Rangiku sighed, glanced around the room one time more, and then she stood up.

She walked outside and stood there for a moment, breathing in the fresh night air.

Then she started to walk, as slowly as possible, so she wasn't to early and thus eventually giving Gin the opportunity to talk to her.

The last part, she had to run to get there in time, so out of breath Rangiku entered the hall just before everyone was silenced.

A small speech followed, and then the graduated had to line up before the captain and his vice-captain.

The captain and the vice-captain of squad five...

Rangiku groaned, she had knew it... From all those squads especially thís one, including the vice-captain... Why not just only the captain?

The line went pretty fast, and before Rangiku knew it, she was the one to receive her certificate from Gin.

Gin handed her uninterested her certificate over while his captain, Aizen, said some nice words.

It was only when she walked away that Gin gasped and then sighed, clearly only then realizing it had been her, and that he had lost his chance now, seeing that Rangiku would leave immediately.

Rangiku didn't know why, but it took her a lot of time to get to the other side of the room. She was greeted by all her friends, who held her back for a moment, or she had to push herself past people who wouldn't move.

When Rangiku looked around, she saw the line was gone, and that Gin was fighting his way towards her through the crowd.

How difficult it was for her, how easy it seemed to be for him. It seemed like everything glided past him like water, and that everyone stepped aside for him.

In less than a few seconds, Gin was standing next to her.

Quickly, without giving Gin a chance to address her, Rangiku turned around, and started fighting herself through the crowd again.

When she finally got free, she didn't pay attention to Gin calling her, but hasted herself outside and hid herself in the shades of the building.

It was a full moon, so the clearing in front of the school wasn't safe to cross now, because Gin could spot her easy then.

Breathing as slow and soundless as possible, Rangiku waited until Gin would appear in the doorway, search for her, and then go inside again, so she could leave.

But then a hand was clapped over her mouth, muffling her gasp, and an arm was folded around her middle so she couldn't get away.

"You forgot yer spiritual pressure, Ran-chan," Gin whispered in her ear. "Can I release ya and d'ya promise ya won't run away?"

Rangiku slowly nodded, and Gin released her.

"Where the hell was that good for?" Rangiku asked, catching her breath.

"Sorry, Ran-chan, I was afraid ya wouldn't listen to me if I just asked ya to wait for me..."

Rangiku gave him a faint smile, but nothing more than that.

"Well, what would you want to say, then?"

"Well... What I want to say is..." Gin stuttered. "I love ya Ran-chan... Everything I did, do or am doing might hurt ya, but it isn't meant that way... I- I just want everything to be normal again and-"

"You mean you want things to go like you want them to go. Not like "they're supposed to go" or however you say it," Rangiku said.

"Maybe..." Gin said sadly. "It's driving me mad..."

"What?" Rangiku asked a bit uncertain.

"The reality. I don't know what reality is, and what was supposed to be. Sometimes I don't believe myself any more, and think I'm mad for thinking it is supposed to be different. But then I see those flashbacks... Those memories... And they're just so real. I just can remember every detail of things I did or was supposed to do. But when you do things, you don't usually remember every detail of it. I just don't know it any more... My life is just one big mess at the moment. The only thing I know for sure, is that what I just said."

"And that is?"

"That I love ya, Rangiku..."

Rangiku just didn't know what to say, Gin was clearly confused by everything. It was hard to compose such a lie, surely if he was making it up right on the spot.

But didn't Gin graduate after one year? And wasn't there spoken of him as a genius? Maybe hé was able to do it...

But that confusion, that sadness... It was just so real. And those sad, closed eyes. They were so sad, but they might been hiding the truth.

There was just one solution, Rangiku decided. His eyes. Gin needed to open his eyes. Only if he looked her right into her eyes, she would be able to tell if he was lying or not.

"Open your eyes," Rangiku said.

"What?" Gin said, looking up.

"Your eyes, open them. I want to see you telling your story with your eyes open. Only then I'll be able to tell if you're lying or not."

"He ís lying, Rangiku, don't believe him," a voice from behind Rangiku spoke.

Rangiku turned around. "Shūhei ?"

Shūhei was standing there, looking gravely at Gin.

"I thought we had promised each other to leave her alone and let her choose herself?" he said, not losing Gin out of the eye for one second.

"Hè? What-" Rangiku said, but she was interrupted by Gin.

"She needs to know the truth, Shūhei , we can't just let her live in this lie any more."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shūhei said. "The only lies I know are the ones that you are telling now."

"But- But-" Gin said. He knew it for sure. Shūhei also knew the two histories. The one now, and the original one.

He had trusted him. He had trusted that damn Shūhei to speak the truth to Rangiku.

But now he couldn't force him, Rangiku would only believe him less and less.

He bowed his head. "You're going to regret this, Shūhei ," he said, his sadness turning into anger. "The truth may be slower, but in the end it will be there. And it'll win. No matter how quick your lies may be, the truth is the strongest in the end."

"We'll see who's the liar here..." Shūhei said, not even wincing at this. "And if you broke your promise not to leave Rangiku alone, I'll do the same. She's my life goal, and I found it really hard to leave her alone, but as long as no one got near her, I could stand it. But now you've gone too far, and I'll protect Rangiku with all my life!"

Then Shūhei dragged Rangiku away from Shūhei , and he pushed her at the wall.

"You mustn't come too close to him, he might be dangerous. He's so confused he's a threat to you but also to himself."

Gin heard it, and also heard Rangiku saying she would obey Shūhei .

Damn him.

Damn that stupid man, the one who ruined his history...

* * *

Hey,

I thought I would have problems with not having enough to say for this chapter, but it's even above my average amount of words. 0.0

Well, hope you liked it~!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	25. Chapter 25

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku looked up at Shūhei.

"But why? Why is he dangerous?" she asked. "That sadness in his eyes, that confusion... It wasn't like he would harm me or something..."

"Didn't you hear him? He said he didn't know the difference between reality and his fantasy any more!" Shūhei said. "He's a danger to himself and to you. And- And I don't want anything to happen to you..."

Shūhei gently embraced Rangiku, and Rangiku heard him softly crying.

"Please Rangiku..."

"But- But I can't possibly just ignore him, can I? And tomorrow I join the Gotei 13, so I'm living quite close to him, then..."

"Don't join his squad. Join mine, and I'll protect you." Shūhei said shortly. "If you ever contact him again, and his lies- I'm not talking to you any more..."

Rangiku was quite shocked by this. Did Shūhei really mistrust Gin that much?

"I have to go now, Rangiku," Shūhei said, releasing Rangiku again.

Rangiku thought of all the nice moments they had, and were maybe going to have. She didn't want to lose Shūhei .

Shūhei walked away, and Rangiku decided within seconds. Shūhei was the one who saved her, and all those fine moments couldn't be "fake".

"Shūhei , where are you going?" Rangiku said with a breaking voice which echoed through the night.

Shūhei smiled and turned around, and he caught Rangiku who'd ran to him in his arms. "I knew you'd choose me," Shūhei said, smiling and very relieved, while tightly hugging Rangiku.

"I'll walk you home, Rangiku," Shūhei said.

Rangiku nodded quietly, seeing protesting wouldn't help anything.

Quietly, they walked next to each other over the little path to Rangiku's home, which wouldn't be hers any more in the coming morning which was only a couple of hours away now.

When they arrived at the little house, Shūhei hugged Rangiku one last time, and then he vanished in the shadows of the night.

Rangiku sighed.

She felt torn between those two boys who all seemed to love her so very much they would go to the end of the world for her.

It was cute in one way, but also confusing. She didn't know what to do and who to choose and to believe.

That whole story about a whole reality changing by just a falling star was a bit absurd, but not impossible.

Maybe luck and reality decided together that they would torture and confuse everyone by doing this.

And especially Gin was the target.

In the beginning, she and Shūhei had been very happily together and had so much fun.

But Gin had been all alone and had to see how his company and love was snatched away in front of him by someone else, just because he was like a minute too late.

But it was still weird.

It just seemed so impossible for a reality to change. And wasn't Shūhei dead serious when he said he would never look her into the eyes again if she believed just one of Gin's stories, from which Shūhei thought they were lies?

And wasn't Gin a genius? Maybe not only smart in his knowledge, but also in his lies and ways to get her?

Maybe he was acting. Maybe Shūhei was right and was Gin just so confused because he couldn't get Rangiku he started to make up things to get her, or started to believe in his own fantasies.

She needed to talk to him.

Today.

Now.

She just had to know the truth, or otherwise she couldn't sleep. Or make her choices.

So she ran back over the road to the academy, hoping Gin was still there.

Then, suddenly, a figure released itself from the shadows. Rangiku was slammed against her head, and with a sick feeling Rangiku fell onto the ground.

"A girl this time," a deep, gentle and calm voice said. "Now we can also see if the Hōgyoku also works on women. Get the Hōgyoku ready, Tōsen".

Rangiku recognized the voice. It was Gin's captain, Aizen.

But if Aizen and Tōsen were here, then she probably didn't have to search for Gin any longer...

"You're not doing this to her," a voice said from somewhere out of Rangiku's view. She tried to turn her head to see who was speaking.

The moon was reflected on silver hair, and a very sad yet so furious face.

"If you'll just touch her with óne finger, I'll kill you, Aizen, I promise," Gin continued.

Rangiku squinted to get her view some sharper.

Gin was holding the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it.

"Gin, stop it," Rangiku heard Tōsen say.

"No, Tōsen, we can't let him turn against us, he knows to much," Aizen said with the same calm voice, clearly not impressed. "If this... girl means so much to Gin, we won't torture her before Gin's eyes before killing her."

"But-" Tōsen said, and Gin released his sword.

"We can better kill her immediately," Aizen continued.

This time, Tōsen relaxed. "Ah, I already thought..."

"What?" Gin said, his voice breaking. "ÍF your filthy hands only póint at Rangiku, I'll murder you my own!"

Rangiku heard the drawing of swords, the sound of a sword cutting in flesh and the splatting of blood. Then someone fell next to her onto the ground.

The last thing Rangiku saw before she passed out was a blur of silver and red.

* * *

Hey,

This was the chapter already.

I'm doing something wrong. 0.0

Rangiku was supposed to háte Gin, and don't even speak to him. Ever. But now she's even getting feelings for him...

Okay, arm yourself for some anti-Gin the next chapter so I can follow my original storyline...

(Sorry for the Gin-lovers, I'm a Gin-lover myself, and that's probably why this is happening ^-^)

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	26. Chapter 26

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

When Rangiku regained conscience, she was still lying on the damp forest ground, and next to her, sitting and clutching the right side of his face, was Gin.

Aizen just sheathed his sword with an evil smirk on his face.

"You promised it, Gin, now you can't just back away when we coincidently planned to do something with your girlfriend..."

"I'm no-" Rangiku wanted to say, but she changed her mind just in time and quickly closed her eyes, acting like she was still unconscious.

"Okay, just for this very time we'll leave her alone, but if she stands in our way just once again, I'll kill her and you'll follow if you struggle or work against us, understand?"

Gin nodded, still covering the right side of his face with his hand.

"Okay," Aizen said, pulling Gin on his feet. "Let's go to search someone else."

Gin released the right side of his face, and showed his face to Rangiku, lighted with the little moonlight there was.

Rangiku could just withhold herself from gasping.

On the right side of Gin's face was an awful cut. Not deep enough to leave any scars, but deep enough to hurt enormously and cause enormous pain.

"I'm sorry," Gin mouthed to Rangiku, spotting she was concious again.

He turned around, and Rangiku saw dried streams of blood out of the cut on his face, running down into his kimono.

Rangiku just couldn't ignore it.

She opened her eyes and stood up.

"Why did you do that? Why do you hurt him that badly when he only doesn't want you to kill a specific person? He could... He could've díed when things went wrong!"

Aizen opened his mouth, ready to answer her in a very confident and scorning way, but Gin spoke before Aizen could.

"Stop it, Rangiku,"

"What-?" Rangiku said, but Gin interrupted her.

"I said I wanted you to stop. Don't you ever listen to anything anyone ever says?"

"But- But-" Rangiku said. "I thought-"

"You don't think at all, you only believe. You believe in all the good humans have buried deep down in them, not of their bads. And you believe everything he tells you. All his lies and not my truth..."

"But who says you're speaking the truth? Shūhei says-"

"It's always Shūhei again, isn't it?" Gin sneered, and he spat on the ground. "That stupid idiot that can speak by accident and thinks he's all cool with that 69 and everything! You should héar him down there in the Soul Society: "Am I doing it all right, Tōsen-taicho?" "Do you think I can make justice by doing my paperwork, Tōsen-taicho?" "Do you think I can earn my promotion soon if I keep working like this, Tōsen-taicho?" And always seeking attention at the girls, thinking he's better than everyone..."

"Hey Gin," Tōsen said. "Stop it. It's my subordinate you're talking about, and he's behaving quite well, better than you in fact, and he's working at his uttermost best at the moment, and he's not even lóóking at girls..."

"Sorry, Tōsen-taicho " Gin said, bowing his head, speaking modest again but with a light sneer. "It won't happen again, I promise. I just had to show this girl where her place was..."

Aizen nodded. "Good, Gin," he said, calm again. "That's how I know you. Not fussing about girls, but hurting them, like you do with everyone who stands in our way. And it doesn't mind me if you're doing it physically or mentally with those excellent, cutting words of your's..."

Aizen's praising speech was interrupted by the sound of breaking branches and crunching leaves; the sound of Rangiku running away.

Gin bowed his head.

"I'm sorry, Rangiku," he whispered. "But if I showed Aizen I was really close to you, he would murder you or keep you hostage. I nearly made that happening... I hope you can forgive me when you can finally understand it, but I don't think you will... And I won't stay close to this bastard, Rangiku, I promise, I'll leave him as soon as possible, no matter if it might kill me or not. And when it kills me, I'll take him with me, I promise... So please Rangiku, be patient. Everything is going to be like it's supposed to be, and maybe even better than that!"

In his anger, Gin clenched his fists a little too hard, and his nails cut his flesh, causing it to bleed.

"I swear it, Rangiku, with my own blood and on my own heart..."

"Shall we go?" Aizen asked, not mentioning Gin promising to take him down.

"Y-yeah," Gin said. "The sun will rise in a few hours, so I don't think we can still do anything..."

The three turned around and went back to Seireitei, the place which would be Rangiku's new home in just a few hours.

Rangiku was a few yards behind them, running as fast as she could. It was only now that she realized the full danger of those three who would all, even Gin, destroy everything that stood in the way to their victory.

"But why?" Rangiku whispered. "Gin, why?"

* * *

Hey,

This is the chapter already, hope you (sort of) liked it~! ^-^

I'll be going on holiday tomorrow, so I can't write for a whole full week, so don't expect any updates, sorry.. :(

Hope you also have a nice holiday/nice days~!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy

P.s.: I also have a Fanfiction facebook account now where you can contact/follow me ;) The link is on my profile~!


	27. Chapter 27

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid and Mungetsu! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Shūhei was walking through Seireitei, in deep thoughts about the paperwork he still had to do.

Then, without further notice, he tripped, and fell down on the ground.

"Hey little kid," a clearly drunk shinigami said, and his mates laughed. "This is no place for school kids. Go and play somewhere else, okay?"

Shūhei stood slowly up, and ruffed with one hand through his short hair which was indeed a bit like that of a little school kid.

Then he walked away, wanting to get away from another one of those numerous harassments.

"Hey, wait, kiddo! You ain't going anywhere!" the drunk shinigami yelled and he got very unstable on his feet, walking towards Shūhei in a very wobbly line.

"Leave him alone!" a clear voice said from behind Shūhei.

"Oh, got yourself a girlfriend, kiddo?"

Shūhei looked around, and there stood...

"Rangiku?" Shūhei said bewildered.

"Hey, Shūhei," Rangiku said, and she smiled. "How are you doing?"

Shūhei smiled back. "Now I finally see you again, I'm great!"

The drunk shinigami looked from Shūhei, who was now full of self confidence, and Rangiku who also looked as she could kick him right between the legs any minute.

Scared, the drunk stumbled back, and then he and his friends ran for their lives.

Laughing, Rangiku watched them running away. Then she turned back to Shūhei.

"Shūhei-" she said, and then she sighed. "I-I'm really sorry about everything... I-"

Shūhei didn't let her finish her apology, but hugged her tightly.

"Shūhei, I-" Rangiku said, but Shūhei interrupted her again.

"It's okay, Rangiku," he whispered her again. "I knew you would come back to me in the end..."

"Yeah, that's okay," Rangiku said with some difficulty. "But can you please release me now? You're killing me..."

"Oh. Yeah. Right. Sorry..." Shūhei said, quickly releasing her.

"Thank you," Rangiku said with a faint smile.

"So this is your first day in Seireitei as a shinigami?" Shūhei asked quickly.

"Yeah," Rangiku said. "It's nicer here than I thought..."

"Which squad are you in?" Shūhei asked, with his heart pounding in his throat.

_"Please, let it be mine..." _he thought. _"Please, not that foxfaced bastard's squad!"_

"Squad 10," Rangiku said.

Shūhei was a disappointed at first, but then he shrugged.

"Ah, well, at least you're not in G- at least you're also in a nice squad with its barracks quite close to ours..."

Rangiku smiled. "Sorry, I really wanted to join your squad, though, but they didn't allow me to, because the 10th squad really needed members to do the paperwork..."

Shūhei smiled, but then he heard nearing footsteps at quite a high pace. He turned around, ready to face those drunks again, but when the shinigami turned around the corner, Shūhei felt the temperature drop with a few degrees.

It was Ichimaru Gin.

For a few, full seconds, all three of them just plainly stared at each other. Then Rangiku turned around, ran away, and turned around the first corner she saw, just wanting to get away of him.

"You bastard!" Shūhei yelled. "What have you done with her?"

"I-I haven't done anything..." Gin said, a bit confused.

"Oh yeah? So you're just playing hide and seek then? Or eternal tag, huh? Man, speak the truth, Rangiku was dead afraid of you!"

"I just hád to..." Gin whispered, bowing his head.

"Do whát?"

Gin looked up again, with tears in his eyes.

"You don't understand! You-"

"Well, try me, then!" Shūhei said, folding his arms.

"I- I can't tell you... Otherwise he'd kill me ánd Rangiku! Not that I mind being killed, but Rangiku-"

"Who the heck are you talking about?"

Gin sighed.

"I'm sorry, Shūhei," he said, shaking his head. "You'll know it when the time has come..."

He turned around, and wanted to walk away, but Shūhei pulled him back.

"Just one scratch," he said threatening. "If Rangiku just gets something as one scratch which was something through you, I'll take care you'll pay for it!"

Then Shūhei released Gin, and ran in the direction of where Rangiku had ran away, leaving a very sad Gin behind.

Shūhei didn't know he'd made another change in history, that Gin would been known as the "Sad Fox" from there on, because a smile would never cross his face again.

But Shūhei didn't mind while he ran on, searching for Rangiku, whose heart had broken by the one who she was supposed to love so much.

After a while of searching, Shūhei finally found Rangiku, hidden in a dark corner of an alleyway with her head place upon her folded knees while softly crying.

Shūhei sat down next to her, and put an arm around her shoulder and softly pressed her against his chest.

"Calm down, Rangiku," he said soothing. "It's okay now, he's not here any more..."

Rangiku sighed, and sobbed a bit before putting her head on Shūhei's shoulder.

"Thank you, Shūhei," she whispered. "You're the best..."

* * *

Well,

I guess we're nearly at the end of our flashbacks now...

But don't forget to keep your eyes open for the first meeting between Rangiku and Hitsugaya, of course ;)

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	28. Chapter 28

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry for letting it taking quite a bit of time before this update again, I'm trying my best, but sometimes I just don't know what to write... And it happened two times in this chapter that I typed an amazing part, forgot to save, and closed fanfiction down. Amazing part gone... .

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku was standing for the mirror, putting on her small scarf.

When Shūhei gave it on one of her birthdays, it had been a good length, but now it was becoming a bit small.

Whatever, she didn't mind. It was a sign Shūhei cared and still cares about her, in contrary to Gin...

She felt that her eyes started to water again, but roughly she wiped the gathering tears away.

Today, she wouldn't shed any more tears about the past. Gin was just a stupid, sad, foxfaced bastard and not worth crying about! When she looked back at everything, she felt such a crybaby...

She sighed deeply, and then she left the barracks.

"Hey, Rangiku," a voice said, and Rangiku turned around.

Shūhei was standing next to the entrance of the barracks and walked up towards her.

"Any specific plans for today?" he asked, after giving her a short hug.

Rangiku smiled, and shook her head.

"Not really... I wanted to walk a bit around through the Rukongai markets of today, to see if there is something nice there. Do you want to come along, or do you have too much work to do?"

"Nah, I got a day off today from my captain, he said I would overwork myself if he wouldn't do that..."

Rangiku grinned. "You're really working too hard... It'll only take some more time for you to become a workaholic.. "

Shūhei smiled a bit clumsy. "Er... Is it really that bad?"

"Yes it is~!" Rangiku said, smiling. "I bet that if I wasn't here, you just were sitting behind your desk again, working your ass off while having a day off~!"

Shūhei grinned. "Yeah, maybe you're right... But you don't become a captain by just slacking off, do you?"

"So you want to become a captain, don't you?" Rangiku said, serious again.

Shūhei sighed. "I don't know, but... Well, in case that whén I would like to become captain one time, I then have a good base for it..."

"Okay," Rangiku said, shrugging. "Are we going now or not?"

"Y-yeah, of course!" Shūhei said, and he and Rangiku left the 10th squad grounds, and walked through Seireitei.

"We're quite lucky, aren't we?" Shūhei asked.

"What do you mean, lucky?" Rangiku asked.

"Well, that we are together again here, on this beautiful location with plenty of food and warmth and that we don't have to die to get our food to survive... I guess our young days were a lot harder than those born in the good circles, like the Kuchiki's..." he added when they walked past the Kuchiki Manor.

"Yeah..." Rangiku said, staring to the big, beautiful manor with its wide garden and koi pond. "Well, it makes you stronger and shows you you have to be happy with what you've got."

"Yeah, guess you're right... We already need to be happy with the luck of us two both being gifted with spiritual power. We need to eat because of that, while other Rukongai members don't, but we have the privilege to become shinigami so we can learn how to defend ourselves, so we can't easily be abused, while other Rukongai members can..."'

"Shall we go now or do you want to wait until the market comes walking up to-" Rangiku froze in mid-air when Gin turned around the corner. "you..."

She wanted to run. She wanted to hide. She wanted to get away as fast as possible, but remembering the promise she made to herself this morning, she didn't.

"I hope those guy with the jelly beans is there again," Rangiku said, walking some faster than usual and not paying attention to Gin at all. "I really like those~!"

"Y-Yeah, I hope so for you," Shūhei said, catching up to her. "But otherwise I think we can still find something nice to eat".

Gin stood still when Rangiku walked past him, not knowing if he should say something or not.

He hated this.

He hated being ignored, feared and hated by the one he loved, just to protect her. He had done it himself, just for her sake, but it was killing him.

He sighed and looked to Rangiku who was running away with Shūhei, happily laughing.

No, it was better this way...

Rangiku ran onto the local marketplace, which was again a lot smaller than the previous time. The market seemed to become smaller with the day, but fortunately, the guy with the jelly beans was still there.

Rangiku's breath caught when she looked at the little stall, but it was just a second till she realized the silverwhite hair didn't belong to Gin, but to some other kid. It was quite messy, and not as smooth as Gin's.

She walked towards the stall, wanting

The kid just bought some jelly beans, and held up his hand for the change, but the man hesitated and then just put the change on the counter.

"Go home as soon as you're finished here," the man said, turning around and not even looking the boy straight into the face.

Rangiku just couldn't stand it any more.

"Hey, you!" she yelled. The kid looked around and was knocked down by Rangiku's ample chest, but Rangiku didn't notice this. "You shouldn't treat customers like that! Are you taking advantage from him because he's a kid?" Rangiku added, walking up to the stall, past the half-unconscious kid. "I've never realized how rude the people at this store were!"

"N-no-," the man tried, but Rangiku wasn't listening to him any more and turned around to the kid lying on the ground.

After watching him for a few seconds she grabbed his kimono and lifted him up. "How long are you going to sit and cry? Man up and say what's on your mind!"

"And just whose fault is it?" the kid yelled back, trying to break free from Rangiku's grip on his kimono. "Besides, I'm not crying! Lemme go!"

Rangiku blinked a few times when seeing the power that was still in this kid after being treated like that.

"I said let go!"

The kid got some advantage of Rangiku's weakened moment and managed to break free.

"Hey, wait a sec!" Rangiku tried, but the kid was already running away.

Rangiku sighed. "Maybe I should have been a bit friendlier..." she said softly to herself.

Shūhei came standing next to her, and pushed a package of jelly beans in her hands.

"Wow..." he said after a few seconds.

"Yes, I know he-"

"Why can't I be greeted like that?"

"What?" Rangiku asked, half laughing. "Do you want to be knocked unconscious by my ch- by me every time you see me?"

"I wouldn't mind at all..." Shūhei said grinning.

"You're really a pervert, aren't you?" Rangiku laughed, clapping Shūhei on the shoulder.

"And still there is something strange about that boy... He seems to have reiatsu, but I don't think he's able to control it..."

"Aah, whatever," Shūhei said, turning around. "Let's go, Rangiku, then I'll treat you on some sake."

"Sake, what's that?" Rangiku said vaguely while turning around, still with her mind at the little kid she knocked down.

"You'll see," Shūhei said mysteriously, with a half-evil grin. "And I think you'll quite like it..."

* * *

Hey,

The next chapter is the second part of the meeting between Rangiku and Shūhei, but then I think I ran out of flashbacks, so we can go back to the original story line!

Oh, wait, I still got one surprise flashback left ;)

But if you know a really nice flashback you réally want to see, then you can pm me or put it in your review~!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	29. Chapter 29

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry it took me this long, I'm in a very busy school period at the moment... .

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"Are you sure you're supposed to drink this?" Rangiku asked, holding up her small cup of sake up to the light. "Didn't they accidentally swap the sake for water from a vase?"

"No," Shūhei grinned, gulping down his own small cup of sake. "Just try it, I'm sure you'll like it!"

Rangiku carefully brought the tiny cup to her lips, and nipped of the sake.

Shūhei laughed at the sour face Rangiku pulled when she tasted the sake.

"You have to get used at it at first, though," he laughed while refilling his own cup.

"But- How can you drínk this?" Rangiku asked in disbelief. "And you're even doing it on your own will?"

"Yep," Shūhei said grinning, finishing another cup of sake. When he wanted to refill again, he found out his bottle was already empty.

After sighing he spotted Rangiku's bottle, and glared at it for a few seconds. "Are you going to finish-"

"Yeah, yeah, just take it," Rangiku laughed, pushing over the bottle to Shūhei.

Shūhei took it from her, and refilled his cup again.

"Hey, can I sit down here? All the other places are already taken. Or do I disturb some nice date, then?"

Rangiku looked up, and saw a man standing at their table.

He had a straw hat on his head and shades of a starting beard on his chin, but the strangest thing of his appearance was a pink, flowery kimono that was draped over his shoulders.

"Ofcourse, Kyōraku-taicho," Shūhei said, shifting over to the left side of the bank he was sitting on to make place for the captain whose name apparently Kyōraku was.

Kyōraku sat down next to Shūhei, and put down his sake bottles and cup.

"Great," Rangiku thought. "Another drinker..."

She had wanted to talk with Shūhei about the boy they met earlier.

He had quite some spiritual pressure, and couldn't control it.

But when she mentioned it earlier to Shūhei, he just dismissed it like it was nothing to worry about.

Maybe it was, but it was still clinging around in her mind.

When it became later, Rangiku wasn't that annoyed by the fact Kyōraku had joined them. She couldn't talk to Shūhei any more in private, but the two were starting to become drunk, and weren't paying attention to her any more.

"Seconds!" Shūhei yelled, holding up his sake bottle while a drunk blush was creeping up his cheeks.

"Heh, you've already ordered more than two, so you can't talk it seconds any more..." Kyōraku chuckled, also quite red in the face. "You'd rather have to call it "sixths" or something..."

Shūhei also laughed, and gulped down the last bits of his sake while waiting for more.

Rangiku slowly crept to the end of her bank, and stood slowly up. Acting like she wasn't sneaking away from them but just passing by, she walked away from Shūhei, who was too busy with his sake.

When she found herself outside the sake bar, she smiled.

Then she focused herself on the reiatsu of the boy to find him.

It wasn't that hard.

They had gone to a sake bar close to the district in which the market was, and apparently the boy was living in this district.

After a short walk, Rangiku found the little boy's home.

When Rangiku, after throwing some anxious looks at her surroundings, entered the little house, she couldn't suppress a shiver.

It was freezing inside there because of the reiatsu of the boy that was leaking out.

"He probably has a ice-based zanpakutō," Rangiku muttered to herself while walking up to the boy who was sleeping next to a woman Rangiku thought as his grandmother.

The boy was sleeping quite restless, and had a very hard look on his face.

Rangiku looked down, not knowing if she should wake him or wait until he woke up himself, but suddenly the boy opened his eyes with a gasp.

"Yo!" Rangiku said, raising her hand.

"You're from this afternoon!" the boy half-yelled, but Rangiku interrupted him.

"Hide your reiatsu while you're sleeping," she said. "Your grandma looks cold."

The boy looked down at his fragile grandma who was shivering badly.

"Granny..." the boy said softly.

"boydo, you should become a shinigami," Rangiku said.

The boy looked back at her. "W-?"

"Powerful children like you have to learn how to control their own abilities," Rangiku continued. "Otherwise you'll end up killing your grandma with it soon."

"What are you-?" the boy started aggressively, but Rangiku put her hand on the little boy's chest.

"You can hear a voice, can't you?"

"Huh?" the boy said, staring at her.

And then he remembered. He remembered telling his grandma about all those dreams with that giant ice dragon. And a voice.

"D-do you really think I would kill her?" he asked after hesitating for a moment. "And will I be able to hear that dragon's name?"

"Ah, so he already tried to tell you his name! Seems like a loyal and perfect zanpakutō to me..."

"Zanpakutō?" the boy asked. "Do you also have a-"

"Yes, I have," Rangiku said, drawing her zanpakutō. "This is Haineko. She's a cat and she's one of the worst zanpakutō in the world..." Rangiku added with a sour face.

The boy grinned, seeming more relaxed than before.

"What's your name?" Rangiku asked.

"Hitsugaya," the boy said. "Hitsugaya Tōshirō."

* * *

Hey,

Finally I managed to update a chapter, due to school it really took me áges again... p.q

Today was my last real school day, so I guess the updating is going a bit faster from now on, except when I'm on holiday of course ^-^

Just two or maybe three flashbacks to go, and then I go back to the point in the storyline where this fanfiction began, and that's the morning after the night when Shūhei wished his wish which was granted by the power of the falling star~!


	30. Chapter 30

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Still took me some time, though, the test week was harder than I expected XD

I was too lazy to make two chapters for both Hitsugaya becoming captain and Rangiku becoming vice-captain, so I act like they got their ranks at the same time. Turned out kinda crappy... :$

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"Squad ten, from now on, you will have a new captain. Don't judge him by his size and his appearance, he's a genius and has the strongest ice-based zanpakutō of the whole Soul Society," Yamamoto said to the members of squad ten. "And hereby I present you your new captain: Hitsugaya Tōshirō!"

A small guy stepped forward to face the tenth squad.

"Well, hello everyone..." he said a bit uncertain. "I'm Hitsugaya Tōshirō, and... I didn't prepare a speech so I'm going to keep it short. Let's make the tenth squad a nice squad where everyone can get along. I don't want to tell you we're going to be the best squad as every squad has its ups and downs and suits other persons, but I will say that we are going to do our best to be good, okay?"

"Yes, taicho!" the members of the tenth squad said.

"And I'm not only here to present you your new captain, because a new vice-captain is also joining the lead. May I present you Matsumoto Rangiku!"

Rangiku took a deep breath, and stepped forwards, now standing next to her new captain.

He didn't got that taller since she first met him, but he'd grown a lot in experience. What once was a little, dreaded kid was now a powerful captain of squad ten.

"Well," Rangiku said. "What I wanna say is: let's all do our best and take plenty of break time and then everything's gonna be fine~!"

Some of the members of the tenth squad laughed, knowing Rangiku wasn't that hard of a worker who would rather take a break during the whole day.

"Well, also thank you Rangiku for your nice words, although remember that life isn't one big break, will you? Now I hope squad ten will be a blooming squad just like the other squads, who all get along, and don't be afraid to report anything if anything goes wrong. Have a nice day, will you?"

And with this, Yamamoto left the building.

Rangiku smiled happily, not yet able to believe she was really a vice-captain now. Those past days while preparing to be the next vice-captain had been like a dream; hard, but also amazing!

But it was nothing compared to Hitsugaya. He really had a hard time to prove everyone he could be a good captain, but in the end everyone agreed because he just was a genius with a very powerful zanpakutō.

Then she saw someone standing in the doorway. When he saw that she'd spotted him, he vanished before she could even blink with her eyes. It was a silver flash. A silver flash with a lot of white...

Without knowing what she was doing, Rangiku ran outside. Nearly she'd shouted it. Nearly she'd called for him out loud.

But why?

What was it that made her wanting to call for the one who hurt her so badly in the past?

"Rangiku!"

Rangiku looked around to see who called her, part of her wanting to be called by the one who just vanished.

But that part just had to be disappointed, because Shūhei was leaning against a nearby tree, smiling at her.

"Also finally a vice-captain, aren't you?" he said.

"Like that's so easy!" Rangiku said, folding her arms. "You had one more year here to work yourself up to that level! You don't need to remembered why you had more time, do you?"

Shūhei gulped. Due to his fault Rangiku entered the Shinigami Academy one year later than he because he underestimated her. He thought it would be too hard for her, while Rangiku did it even better than he did. This nearly led to their breakdown, but fortunately it was all well now again.

"Wanna go and drink some sake to celebrate?" Shūhei asked quickly to get the attention on another subject.

"You still like that liquid acridity, don't you?" Rangiku laughed. "But okay, I've got nothing better to do, so let's go and watch you go drunk, shall we?"

Shūhei pulled a hard face again. The last time Rangiku and he went drinking Shūhei went really plastered and ended up in the 4th squad barracks where he had spent the night with Rangiku worrying at his side.

"Maybe better not..." he said after remembering this. "You're really mean today!"

Rangiku smiled and walked up to Shūhei.

"Sorry," she said, taking his hand. "I'll just keep my mouth shut then, won't I?"

"Heh," Shūhei said grinning. "Let's just go back inside, won't we? I'm sure they are all celebrating the fact they have a very handsome and lovely vice-captian now!"

Rangiku smiled. "Yeah, but don't touch the sake, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay..." Shūhei said, raising his hands in defence. "You won't see the inside of the 4th squad barracks today, I promise..."

They turned around and entered the tenth squad barracks, chatting and laughing.

The shadow of the nearby tree changed, showing now not only a tree, but also a lonely man, staring at the two entering the barracks, happily together...

* * *

Hey,

Aaah, it turned out crappy again, I've got the feeling there's nothing but crappiest of the crappiest craptalk up there... Hope for you all it isn't that way! If it is, sorry... :(

I've got one more flashback planned for the next chapter, and after that I'm not sure if I can find some more nice moments, so I guess we're up to the original story line then, although it's still before Shūhei wished his wish (he wished his wish after Aizen and his men left, and the original story line chapters start with Aizen still in the Soul Society).

Sorry for the possible craptalk and see ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	31. Chapter 31

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"Birthday?" Rangiku asked, turning around to Hinamori who was standing behind her. "Thank you~!"

"Your birthday is in September, we already celebrated it!" Hinamori said a bit cross, holding the package away from Rangiku. "It's for Hitsugaya-kun!"

"The captain's?" Rangiku asked.

"Yeah!" Hinamori said. "You mean you still haven't prepared anything?"

"Birthday... Huh...?" Rangiku replied slowly, memories of her own first birthday coming into her mind.

That day... When they first met... The silver... Silver? Why was there silver in her memories? There hadn't been any silver then, it had been Shūhei who gave her her birthday, wasn't it? Why was she thinking of silver then?

"Rangiku!" Hinamori said, waking Rangiku up from her thoughts.

"Huh?" Rangiku said vaguely, still with her thoughts at the silver in her memories. "Oh yeah, Hitsugaya... I'll arrange something for his birthday, yeah..."

"You'd better not forget it, Rangiku," Hinamori said, leaving the barracks. "He already has enough problems with you as his vice-captain!"

Rangiku smiled a bit faint. "Don't worry, I won't forget it..."

While thinking of something she could do Rangiku heard a piece of firework being lighted in the distance.

The new year was getting closer and closer, so you could already hear firework being lighted by some idiots who couldn't wait.

But what if she arranged a firework show?

People loved winter fireworks, so why Hitsugaya not?

Kūkaku, the Rukongai firework specialist wouldn't mind either.

Quickly, she stood up and left the barracks and searched for the place where Kūkaku was living this time. It was such a bother she didn't stay on one place but moved around too often, without telling any one.

She left Seireitei and walked through the fields outside Rukongai, hoping she could find Kūkaku on good luck when she noticed someone was following her.

She started to walk faster and faster, wanting to get rid of her stalker. A few yards further she was running to get away from him.

Then, while walking through the long grass, she spotted Kūkaku's house, which wasn't hard to find when you knew where it was.

Two hands were holding up a huge banner with "Shiba Kūkaku" written on it.

Finally, she found it!

In her haste to get to the house, her foot got tangled in the long grass, and she fell.

Cursing under her breath, Rangiku bowed forwards to her feet to get free.

When she finally released herself, she threw an anxious look over her shoulder, but sighed relieved when there was no one to be seen.

She looked back again, wanting to stand up, when she saw someone standing before her.

_"Uh oh..." _Rangiku thought while looking up.

The sunlight was shining in her eyes, so she could only see the outlining of the person.

"D'ya need some help standin' up?" an even too familiar voice said.

"N-no," Rangiku said quickly, trying to stand up. "I can do it myself, Ichimaru!"

"Look, Rangiku, I-" Gin started, but Rangiku interrupted him.

"It's Matsumoto-fukutaicho for you!"

"Yeah, and it's Ichimaru-taicho for you!" Gin snapped back.

"Well, stop following me then, Ichimaru-taicho!" Rangiku said before turning around and starting to walk again.

"I'm not following you, I-"

"Yes, you are,"

"Okay, maybe I am! But I need to tell you something, Ra- Matsumoto-fukutaicho. The reason why I hurted you..."

Rangiku stopped walking again, and turned carefully around, her curiosity winning from her anger.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You see, Ai-" Gin started, but he was interrupted again.

"A good afternoon," a gentle voice behind Gin said, but the cold undertone in it couldn't be missed.

"Good afternoon, Aizen-taicho," Rangiku replied, bowing. Aizen had been so different and gentle since she joined the Soul Society, so she believed he had just been trying something and didn't mean any harm.

Gin refused to bow and just mumbled a short "Noon".

"Where were you going if I may ask? Maybe we can walk together for a part..." Aizen continued.

"Eehm, I-I was just on my way to... to..." Rangiku stuttered. "Well, you see..."

Aizen smiled. "You don't need to tell if you don't want to," he said. "I hope you have a good day. I'll be on my way then. Come, Gin."

Gin gritted his teeth.

"Yes, Aizen-taicho..." he said, turning around to follow Aizen.

Rangiku watched them leave when suddenly a shiver went down her back. But it wasn't because of Gin. It was because of Aizen...

Aah, where the hell was she thinking about?

She turned around and started walking to Kūkaku's house.

She walked up the low cut grass perk in the front of the house, and it was really a relief after all that long grass.

"Stop!" one of the guards in front of the house said. "What do you want? We don't want shinigami around here!"

"I-I just wanted to-" Rangiku started, the other guard interrupted her.

"You can't just go here just because you _"just want something"_... Even though you're véry pretty we can't let you enter..."

"Now, now, guys, don't be so hard!" a harsh voice behind the two guards said. "Let her enter!"

"Yes, madame! Immediately!" both of the guards said, bowing, stepping aside to reveal the woman known as Kūkaku Shiba.

"Yo," Kūkaku said. "What brought you here?"

* * *

Hey,

This is the new chapter already~! Yay, the chapters are coming fast now~!

On a moment in this fanfic Rangiku is walking (and falling XD) in long grass. That's not just a bit overgrown grass, but really réally long grass that comes (in Rangiku's case) at least till your waist! Hitsugaya could nearly drown in it XD

I just wanted to say this in case you thought "what the heck is Rangiku doing, tripping over some grass that's just a bit longer than usual?"

Don't think you were thinking that, but just in case... XD

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	32. Chapter 32

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"So it's his birthday tomorrow, and I wanted to get him something special because he had to go through a lot of trouble and hard work because I was er... a bit too lazy..."

"So now you want me to make up for that with my firework? You got some guts there!" Kūkaku laughed. "But okay."

"You- You're doing it?" Rangiku asked, not yet able to believe.

"Yeah, you are lucky. I just developed some new fireworks and wanted to test them any way, so now it's a good time to do that. I'll take this night for the preparations, so I think I'll be ready at 9 AM tomorrow morning, is that okay with you?"

"Yeah of course!" Rangiku said happily. "Thank you so very much~!"

Kūkaku grinned. "Whatever..."

Happily, Rangiku stood up and the guards led her out of the house.

Behind her, she heard a harsh voice yelling to Kūkaku how she "could possibly help a shinigami".

This was replied by Kūkaku by slamming that person and saying you shouldn't judge people on their appearance.

Rangiku sighed, having the feeling she was causing problems again.

Then she shrugged, and went on her way home again. Now she only had to get Hitsugaya on the right place on the right time...

Maybe Hinamori knew how to do that.

She hurried back through the long grass again, careful not to trip this time.

After a while she finally arrived at the barracks of the 5th squad.

She found Hinamori working at her desk, doing her paperwork.

"Hey Hinamori," Rangiku said. "You don't need to worry any more, I arranged something for Hitsugaya's birthday~! I-"

"So that's what you were doing there..." a gentle voice behind Rangiku said.

Rangiku sighed irritated. He might be the captain of this squad, but why couldn't she just talk to someone without him popping up all the time?

"A-Aizen-taicho!" Hinamori exclaimed, turning a bit red in the face. "I apologize, I haven't finished my work, yet, but it will be done in a minute! I-"

"Don't worry, Hinamori," Aizen said, walking over to Hinamori and putting a hand on her shoulder. "I believe in you..."

Hinamori went even redder in the face, and couldn't say a thing.

"Well, continue your chatting, as long as your work gets finished, Hinamori," Aizen said, releasing Hinamori's shoulder. "I wish you a good afternoon".

And with this Aizen left again.

"Isn't he amazing?" Hinamori sighed, staring after Aizen.

"Amazingly irritating, yeah... I hate it that he pops up behind you, it freaks the hell out of me and I can't talk normally to anyone without him being there..."

Hinamori turned around, frowning. "I don't think he's following you, I think that's just coincidence... I mean, why would Aizen be following you? And what do you mean _"you can't talk normally to anyone without him being there..."_?"

"Well, just a short time ago I was searching for Kūkaku's place to arrange a firework show for Hitsugaya, which is his birthday present by the way, and-"

"That's amazing, Rangiku!" Hinamori exclaimed. "I'm sure Hitsugaya-kun will like that!"

"Thank you," Rangiku said, smiling. "But as I said, I was walking over there, when Ichimaru-taicho caught up with me, clearly wanting to tell me something. But he couldn't finish his sentence or Aizen was standing behind him, interrupting him. Ichimaru-taicho hasn't been able to tell me what he wanted to tell me from thereon..."

"Whooo~!" Hinamori laughed. "Maybe he's in love with you~!"

"He is," Rangiku answered shortly. "And I know that, and he knows that too, so that can't be what he wanted to tell me..."

"He is?" Hinamori said, staring at Rangiku. "Whoo~! You got another lover~!"

"Yeah, together with nearly all the men from Seireitei... It's so annoying! At least nearly everyone knows I'm going with Shūhei so they don't bother me that much, but still..."

"When does that firework show start?" Hinamori asked, to get the conversation to another subject.

"9 AM tomorrow morning," Rangiku replied. "Any idea how I could get Hitsugaya on the right place in time? I wanted to view the show from the rooftop of the team training grounds, you got a really clear view from there on the right height..."

"Put a note on his desk?" Hinamori suggested. "I think he'll come then... And if not, I'll go and fetch him!"

"Yeah, because he's got a crush on you~!" Rangiku said provoking, causing Hinamori to flush.

"Shall I come too, then?" Hinamori asked. "I think he'll find that nice, if he really has a crush on me..."

"Yes, please! I think Hitsugaya would love that!" Rangiku said exited.

"Can I come, too?" the gentle voice said, interrupting them once again.

Rangiku almost exploded with anger. Couldn't he just leave them alone?

Rangiku and Hinamori both turned around to Aizen, who had just entered the room.

"A-Aizen-taicho..." Hinamori stuttered. "I-I'm sorry, I still haven't finished my work, yet, I'll finish it instead of going to Hitsugaya's birthday firework show! I'm so sorry, I-"

"There is a time to work and a time to relax," Aizen said. "Now it's the time to work, and with Hitsugaya's birthday it's the time to relax and to be with friends, even though you maybe haven't finished your work yet by then..."

"T-thank you, Aizen-taicho," Hinamori said softly, bowing to her captain.

"And I will ignore the fact you weren't working in your working time if I can also come to Hitsugaya's birthday tomorrow morning," Aizen continued.

Rangiku sighed, what a low trick to get there too!

"Yes, you're allowed to come, Aizen-taicho," Rangiku said.

Little chance she really knew why Aizen wanted to come.

Maybe it was the shadow that was waiting outside the barracks, waiting for Rangiku to tell her the truth.

Maybe it was because subconsciousness in Rangiku still knew Aizen was a wrong one.

And maybe because all those things she knew or was going to know could get to known by Hinamori, who was an important pawn in his plan...

* * *

Hey,

This is the new chapter already~!

The updating really goes fast the past time, now I don't have to feel guilty any more because of all the late updates... b^-^d

See ya blooming under a cold moon in the next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	33. Chapter 33

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! It's extra long, because I didn't want to make an extra chapter XD

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

That evening there was lying a note on Hitsugaya's desk.

"Huh? What the heck is this?" Hitsugaya said, picking up the piece of paper.

"Come tonight at 9 AM to the rooftop of the team training grounds" he read out loud. He recognized Rangiku's handwriting and... decorations immediately.

"Err... Where the hell did she go without doing her work?"

He shrugged, put the piece of paper back on the table, and went to bed, but he wasn't able to get it out of his mind.

The following morning he stood up and dressed as usually, went to eat something and when he returned he spotted it was only a quarter to nine.

"Well, let's go and kick her back to work then..." he said, sighing irritated.

Rangiku in the meanwhile, was already there on the roof, staring up to the moon.

"Hey," a voice next to Rangiku said.

Rangiku looked, expecting to see Hinamori or maybe Aizen, or even Hitsugaya, but she didn't expect to see the person who was standing next to her.

"Gi-Ichimaru-taicho?" Rangiku exclaimed, some louder than she actually had wanted.

"Just drop that _"Ichimaru-taicho"_-ing already," Gin sighed, sitting down next to Rangiku.

"Oh, okay... Gin..." Rangiku said a little wavering.

Gin sighed softly, it was so nice to hear her saying his name like that, he didn't realize how much he missed even a little thing like that.

Usually, a person would you ask all those irritating, bothersome things like _"what are you doing here? And why? How long are you here already?" _and all those other questions you'd rather not answer but were asked any way.

But Gin didn't do that.

He just sat next to Rangiku, looking up to the sky in which a beautiful moon was shining brightly, bringing some light into the darkness of the night.

"The moon is beautiful tonight, not?" Gin asked. "Only a week more until we've got a full moon again..."

Rangiku nodded. "I always liked the moon, I don't know why... It's so beautiful... Calming... Serene..."

"Yeah," Gin said. "Just like y- the stars that accompany the moon..."

Rangiku threw him a suspicious look, but didn't react to it.

He nearly said something wrong. He wanted to say something else, but then he wouldn't be sitting quietly next to Rangiku any more.

Just out of boredom and to break the silence between them, Gin laid down and started to point out some star signs.

"Where?" Rangiku asked when Gin showed her one of the zodiac signs up there in the air. "I can't see it..."

"You have to lay down," Gin said, as neutral as possible. "Then it's easier to see them..."

Rangiku slowly laid down next to Gin. "Where was it again?"

"See those stars over there?" Gin said. "They are the arrow of the Archer, Hitsugaya's zodiac sign. It's an European one."

"Cool, I never saw that in the stars..."

"You can see so much in the stars... The stars of a star sign don't have to do anything with each other, the human just put them all together in a group because, sometimes with a lot of imagination, you could see things in them. Like the Archer I just showed you for example..."

Rangiku nodded slowly. She couldn't believe Gin was acting so nice to her given the way he had acted the night before she joined the Gotei 13, and the way she had reacted back to him afterwards.

"Why are you acting so nice to me?" Rangiku said before she had actually decided if she was going to ask it or not. "I mean... The way you acted... And the way I acted after that..."

"I never really meant it," Gin said, pushing himself a little upwards and opening his eyes. "Rangiku, I need to tell you something. I... Aizen..."

"Also a good morning, Gin," the gentle voice which seemed to make a habit of interrupting people at the worst possible moment, interrupted Gin.

"G-good morning, Aizen," Gin said, quickly closing his eyes again and standing up.

Rangiku stared a few seconds at the spot in the sky where Gin's eyes just were seconds ago. They were so...

"Good morning, Rangiku-san," Hinamori said, coming to a halt next to Aizen. "Hitsugaya isn't here, yet?"

"N-no, not yet," Rangiku said, sitting up again. "Good morning, Hinamori..."

Hinamori sat down next to Rangiku. "It's a good night for a firework, there aren't any clouds in the sky, so I think we'll be able to see the fireworks at their best!"

"Fireworks?" Gin asked. "You're here to watch fireworks? But since when-"

"It's for Hitsugaya's birthday," Hinamori smiled. "Rangiku arranged it for him, and made up this place to watch them."

"It is indeed true the firework can be seen and enjoyed better from high places," Aizen said, setting himself down next to Hinamori.

"Well, if this is for Hitsugaya's birthday, I'll just go and do some work or something..." Gin said, his voice and face sad.

"No!" Rangiku said, a little too loud. "I mean, no, you don't have to go, I don't think Hitsugaya would mind you being here, so please, stay, and don't look that sad any more..."

Gin had acted so nice to her, no matter the way she had treated him. And now it was time for her to do the same. And it had the needed effect.

Gin was staring at her, not yet able to believe if she really meant it, but it was also mixed with something else. With something that looked like relieved and joy.

"Oh-Okay then," Gin said, sitting down next to Rangiku again.

Rangiku shivered, putting her arms around herself. "It's so cold, can't that moron hurry up or something? Can't he look on the clock or-"

She stopped abruptly when Gin put an arm around her and gently pushed her some closer next to him.

"Wha-" Rangiku started, but Gin interrupted her. "Just put on something better next time, okay?" he mumbled, not looking at her.

Rangiku smiled softly. "Thank you..."

Then she heard footsteps on the roof, and looked around to see Hitsugaya walking towards them.

"Ah, you're here, captain!" Rangiku said, smiling to Hitsugaya.

"What the-" Hitsugaya said. "Aizen and Hinamori are here too?"

"Hey Hitsugaya-kun," Hinamori said sternly. "Call him Captain Aizen!"

"Then call me Captain Hitsugaya..." Hitsugaya muttered, pulling his scar up to his nose again.

"Well, it's your birthday today." Rangiku said a little quick to prevent a fight.

"Ah, look!" she added when the first piece of firework shot up into the sky. "Fireworks in the winter isn't that bad, right? It would even been better when it were snowing..."

"..." Hitsugaya reacted. "...Then it'd been too cold, moron."

"Congrats, Hitsugaya-kun," Aizen said with a short nod to Hitsugaya.

Hitsugaya just sighed. "...To the people who grew up in Rukongai, birthdays don't really exist. If you're born into royalyy over here then it might be different."

Aizen was silent for a while before he spoke again.

"We're all the same. No one actually remembers the exact date of birth. You just have to believe the date that someone you trust tells you."

Rangiku thought again about the way she got her birthday. The silver was in there again, and when Gin softly squeezed her shoulder, her flashbacks went another way.

A figure, disappearing into the snow, leaving her behind. Her helpless calls to him to get him back, which turned out to be futile. Him disappearing without her knowing where he was going. The white snow, the black kimono, the silver...

Rangiku was brought back to reality with a shock by Aizen who continued again.

"It doesn't really matter if it's real," he continued. "The fact that you know your birthday is already a sign of happiness".

_"We're all like fireworks,"_ shot through Hitsugaya's mind. _"We climb, shine and always go our separate ways and become further apart"._

_"Then even if that time comes"..._ "Thanks, Aizen, Gin..."

_"Let's not disappear like a firework"..._ "Thanks, Hinamori"

_"And continue to shine"..._ "Thank you, Matsumoto"

_"Forever."_

Rangiku smiled. "You're welcome"

* * *

Heyy~!

Jihaww, another chapter to add to the list!

As said above it was some longer because I didn't want to make another chapter with Hitsuagaya's birthday.

What I only mention now is that all my characters get often interrupted... :/

I mean, Aizen is meant to interrupt to keep his secret a secret (tadaa~! sóó not obvious! *ahem*), but the others...

If this bothers you, feel free to say so then I'll look if I can cut it down a bit :)

If not... Whatever, I'll do what I think is the best~! b(^3^)d

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	34. Chapter 34

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku was sitting at her desk, working (which was a rare thing to see), when Shūhei entered the office.

"Hey," he said, leaning against the doorpost.

"Hey..." Rangiku answered vaguely while continuing with her work without looking up.

"I guess you would react different when I'd been Ichimaru, would you?" Shūhei said irritated, walking towards Rangiku and coming to a halt before her desk.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about!" Rangiku reacted, now also pissed and turning a little red in the face.

"I'm talking about the fact you were lying next to Ichimaru on the roof of the team training grounds of squad ten this morning!" Shūhei said, hitting the desk with his hands, covering Rangiku's work.

"Could you please remove your hands? I'm trying to work here..." Rangiku asked, not even looking up.

"Rangiku, I'm talking to you, this is serious!" Shūhei yelled.

"Only because you think so! Maybe I'll start liking him more than you when you continue to act this way!" Rangiku yelled back, finally looking up.

"It isn't that you can't walk off and flirt with anyone you want, I just want to protect you! He is dangerous!"

"Why- What are you talking about?" Rangiku asked, now scared. He seemed so nice, was he still following Aizen's path? And was Aizen still busy with his evil plans?

"I- I saw Ichimaru yesterday talking with Aizen, saying Aizen had to stop stalking him all the time or otherwise it wouldn't end that well with him... It seems he interrupted you and Ichimaru all the time, but Aizen said it was for his own sake... And yours... He also mentioned it was better for you if he kept an eye on Ichimaru... I don't know what Gin plans to do with you, but it doesn't seem that harmless... So please, not because I want to keep you for myself alone, but only because I want to protect you: beware of Ichimaru!" Shūhei said, soft again but still urging. "Please Rangiku, promise me! Promise me at least you'll be cautious when you two are together when no one else is around..."

"Y-yeah okay," Rangiku said dumbfounded. "I-I promise..."

"Fine," Shūhei said, seeming really relieved. "If you finish your work now, why don't we go and drink some sake after then?"

Rangiku smiled faintly. "Yeah... Maybe..."

She just didn't know what to believe.

It was starting to dawn on Rangiku that Gin was trying to tell her that Aizen wasn't what he appeared to be, but what Shūhei just told her turned everything around...

She sighed, she was fed up with all those problems...

She worked herself through the last bits of paperwork and sighed then.

If there was only a way to get rid of those problems... To forget them... Even if it was only for a while...

"C'mon, Rangiku," Shūhei said smiling when he spotted that Rangiku had finished her paperwork. "Let's go and drink some sake!"

That was it! Shūhei had told her he had started drinking it because they nearly broke up and needed to forget that. He said it worked quite good, but that the problems came back to you twice as hard as they were the next day, but that didn't matter.

Tomorrow was a new day and her head was bursting now, so now she had to get some peace in her head, and the rest would come tomorrow.

"C'mon, let's go~!" Rangiku said happily, jumping up from her desk.

"Wow, I didn't know you were that enthusiastic about it, I thought you didn't like it..."

"I- I just need to get away from here, my head is aching because of all that work!" Rangiku said, pulling Shūhei along by his hand. "Are we going now or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming..." Shūhei said, smiling.

They walked to the nearest sake bar where they sat down and waiting for someone to come and take their orders.

After a few minutes a girl walked up to their table. "With what can I please you?"

"One bottle of sake for me," Shūhei said. "And Rangiku, what do you-"

"Make it two, please," Rangiku said smiling.

The girl nodded and a few minutes later she came back with two bottles of sake.

"Enjoy," she said smiling and after giving a short bow she left.

"Well, cheers, then," Shūhei said smiling, pouring some sake in his tiny sake cup.

Rangiku gave him a short nod, and put the bottle on her lips and took a sip.

The taste was bitter and awful, but she had to go through it. She had to reach that haven of forgetfulness that was hidden in the alcohol.

The first bottle was followed by the next one, and that one was also followed by more.

"Err, Rangiku..." Shūhei said carefully. "Maybe you should stop now, you're not used to drinking..."

Rangiku shrugged and downed another bottle, and ordered another one. After the first bottle, the pain and troubles had returned in a few minutes, or maybe even a few second, but the more she drank, the longer it stayed away.

Everything was slowly vanishing, until everything was black...

* * *

Hey,

Yihaww~! It's going fast~! XD

Whoops, Gin and Shūhei took Rangiku to drinking... They really are no good for her...

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	35. Chapter 35

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu ****and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"Rangiku!" Rangiku heard someone calling her name. Where was she? What happened? Slowly, and with some difficulty, she opened her eyes, a hard look on her face, only to see Shūhei's face above her.

"W-What happened?" Rangiku whispered, not able to talk louder. "W-Where am I?"

"You're in the 4th squad barracks after... Well you drank too much, you've been in coma..."

"In coma?" Rangiku asked shocked, trying to get up. "For how long?"

"Shhh, calm down!" Shūhei said, pushing her back into the bed again. "You've been absent for... a whole day..."

"A whole dáy?" Rangiku yelled with a breaking voice.

"Y-yeah..." Shūhei said, casually scratching his head.

"But... But... How about my work and everything?"

"Well, nearly everyone was worried dead about you, so I guess they're already glad you woke up..."

"Matsumoto!" another voice yelled, and Hitsugaya came running into the room. "I'm glad you finally woke up, but how could you possibly be that stupid?"

Shūhei nodded. "Y-yeah, Rangiku, I think that too, sorry... You're acting so weird the last time..."

"Weird?" Rangiku asked, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you start drinking as an idiot while you're not used to it, you are friendly to Hitsugaya-taicho and arranged an amazing birthday present for him, you are doing your work..."

"Well, sorry, I'll stop doing my work then~!" Rangiku said grinning.

Shūhei also grinned, but a bit faintly.

"Rangiku, I don't know what's happened and what you're doing to yourself, but please, stop it, you're ruining yourself..."

Rangiku sighed. "It's just... I was starting to believe something, when someone said something that turned it all the way around... And I was starting to trust someone I shouldn't trust according to the very thing said by the person I trust the most... And it's just... I..."

Rangiku's voice fainted away when someone walked through the "corridor" made between the beds surrounded with curtains, visible because one of Rangiku's curtains was left open by Shūhei.

Gin threw a short glance in her room for as far that was possible with closed eyes, and then quickly walked along, followed by a guy with blonde hair which covered the left half of his face.

"Hey, Kira!" Shūhei said, standing up from Rangiku's side and walking to Kira. "Drunk too much again?"

"Nah, the only time I did that was an accident, I'm not that bad as you... I had just a very bad papercut..." Kira said faintly grinning and showing his right hand's index finger wrapped in bandages.

"Auch!" Shūhei said.

"Yeah... And now Ichimaru-taicho is cross with me because I was wasting his time and everything by nearly bleeding to dead..."

"He is whát?" Rangiku yelled from her bed.

"Er..." Kira said, looking up and spotting Rangiku. "He..."

But he didn't have to finish his sentence, as Rangiku stood up from her bed and ran past Kira.

"Rangiku!" Shūhei yelled. "You're not supposed to be out of bed, yet! You're recovering from a coma for god's sake!"

But Rangiku didn't listen, and ran along for as far as she could run, though. Her legs felt like they were made of iron and her head was aching very badly. She could collapse any minute now, but she had to go on. She just hád to teach that idiot how to behave!

When she finally reached Gin, who was only a few yards away from her place in the 4th squad barracks, her legs couldn't carry her any longer.

Gin looked around, his eyes opening, just in time to catch Rangiku before she fell on the ground.

But instead of those things that always happens in movies and books, like that they both burst out into tears and forgive each other, the opposite happened.

"Rangiku, have ya gone completely mental?" Gin yelled. "You musn't-"

"I rather think yóu are the one who went completely mental!" Rangiku yelled back. "I mean, Kira can't help cutting himself that badly, can he? So there is no freaking reason to be cross at him!"

"I-" Gin started, completely dumbfounded, but Rangiku didn't let him finish his sentence.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you? You don't care about other people and their feelings. You just lie to them, hurt them, shout at them, threaten them..."

"Hey, I've never threatened anyone!" Gin snapped. "So don't start to lie yerself!"

Rangiku looked up to Gin's face to see if he was lying or not, but he didn't seem to be lying.

"But then... Aizen..."

Gin bowed forwards to Rangiku and held his head next to her. "Aizen isn't who he seems to be, ya'd rather beware of him than of me," he whispered.

"Wait a minute, why would-" Rangiku started, but Gin interrupted.

"But okay, if ya insist on it, I'll apologize to Kira," he said in a somewhat louder voice than usual.

"Come to my place tonight if you're recovered by then," he continued in a muffled voice. "This isn't a safe place to talk".

"But-" Rangiku started again, but Gin threw her a warning look.

"A-Are you all right, Rangiku?" Shūhei's worried voice sounded behind her.'

Rangiku turned around for as far that was possible with Gin still holding her.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said smiling.

"I'll help you back to your bed," Shūhei said, offering Rangiku his arm.

"I can walk myself, thank you," Rangiku said, pulling herself free from Gin's grip and immediately losing her balance again after doing a step.

Shūhei tried to catch her, but Gin was quicker.

He helped Rangiku back to her bed where Rangiku sat down, sighing.

"What's wrong?" Gin asked grinning. "Seems like somethin's botherin' ya..."

"Yeah..." Rangiku sighed. "I just don't like being dependent of others..."

"Well, then don't get that drunk again, will ya?" Gin said, winking at her before closing his eyes again.

Rangiku smiled. "Only if you behave yourself..."

"I'll see..." Gin said, turning around to Kira who still stood there dumbfounded. "Come, Izuru..."

After a few seconds Kira finally reacted by nodding at Gin and they both left the 4th squad barracks.

And despite of Gin's nickname, the sad foxfaced bastard, Gin was smiling this time, like the sun had started shining after all those rainy days...

* * *

Hey,

I had a bit of a writers block after the "you're ruining yourself"-part of Shūhei, so that's why it took some longer, but I made this up and I think it came out quite well...

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	36. Chapter 36

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"He really thinks he is something, huh?" Shūhei asked a bit grumpy when they walked down the steps of the 4th squad barracks.

"Huh, what?" Rangiku asked, her thoughts somewhere else.

"Well, he's been grumpy and sad for as long as I know him, snapping at people, but when you fall into his arms he's suddenly playing the gentleman and listens to you, helps you..." Shūhei said irritated.

"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but he also yelled at me first..."

"Yeah, because he was worried about you, not because you were wasting his time or something..."

"Oh, come on, Shūhei!" Rangiku sighed. "Don't start it again, okay? This is the thírd time you mention this... Just admit you're worried or jealous, okay?"

"I'm not jealous!" Shūhei exclaimed. "I'm just..."

"Jealous~!" Rangiku finished his sentence for him.

"No I'm not!" Shūhei said irritated. "Okay, you're right, maybe I'm worried, but I am nót jealous!"

"Yes you are~!" Rangiku said provoking, and when Shūhei threw her a very véry bad look, she started to walk faster.

"Oh, our little Shūhei is worried now~! But I think he's also angry~! Whoooo, what am I scared~!" she said provoking, looking back over her shoulder.

Then she started to run, laughing, with Shūhei running after her.

Then she turned around a few corners, running the way she usually took when she went to the tenth squad barracks from there. Then she looked over her shoulder again to see if Shūhei was still following her, but there was no one to be seen.

"Shūhei?" Rangiku asked frowning, turning around and slowly walking back. "Shūhei, where are you?"

But even when she walked all the way back to the fourth squad barracks he was nowhere to be seen.

"Strange..." she whispered softly to herself.

Then she shrugged and walked back to the tenth squad barracks where she was shortly greeted by Hitsugaya.

"Hey, taicho~!" Rangiku said happily, but still some fainter than usual.

"Hm," Hitsugaya replied. "Don't be that happy when you were nearly dead!"

"Oh, do you care that much about me, taicho~?" Rangiku cooed.

"No I don't!" Hitsugaya yelled, getting red. "Otherwise I would have to do all this work myself! You at least did your work before you nearly drank yourself to death!"

Rangiku left the office, still smiling to hide how much it had hurt her.

She hadn't done it on purpose! Everyone was acting like she had wanted to die, or that she was a child that couldn't take care of herself.

They all cared and worried so much about her it was started to annoy her. Especially Shūhei, he really was too overprotective, no matter how much he might love her.

She wandered a bit around through the barracks, not really knowing what to do until Gin's invite from the other day gently pushed its way back into her mind.

He wanted to tell her something. In secret. With the two of them all alone.

Should she really go?

Safety wasn't the trouble, they might be alone there but not alone enough for him to be able to do anything what he wanted. If she screamed or made any noise, there would be enough people around to throw a suspicious look at them.

And she trusted him.

She didn't exactly know why, but she trusted him, she was sure he wasn't going to do or even try anything. He might try to let her believe things or tell her stories which might be the hard truth, but he wouldn't even look at her in the wrong way.

She sighed and stared out of the window she was standing next to.

_"Oh, Gin... What do you want from me..." _Rangiku thought.

Then she frowned. Why did she think that? It was not like he was anything special or something.

The evening was already dawning when Rangiku entered the office.

"Taicho, I'll be going for a while~!" Rangiku said while passing through the office.

"Yeah oka- What?" Hitsugaya said, immediately looking up. "But you're still recovering!"

"Are you my dad?" Rangiku asked. "And I'm not going to drink, if that's what you are thinking..."

"Oh- Okay, all right then!" Hitsugaya said a little irritated. "What are you going to do then?"

"I am going to G- go for a walk..." Rangiku said, deciding at the last moment she could better not tell him. "Just wandering around a bit..."

"Don't make it too late," Hitsugaya said, bowing over his papers again.

"Don't overwork yourself~!" Rangiku said, and with this, she left, only to hear her name called out to her by Hitsugaya, carried on by the wind and echoeing through the buildings dimly lit in the twilight.

It was quite a walk to the third squad barracks, so Rangiku started to walk some faster than usual to reach the barracks some earlier.

When she finally arrived there, she walked into the also dimly lit building, searching for Gin's office.

But her feet carried her somewhere else, as if they knew how to get there.

Instead of at the office, Rangiku wound up at Gin's room...

* * *

Hey,

Well, here it is~! :D

It took me quite some time again, but I am developing another addiction, sorry guys... :3

I'll try to find the right balance between my other addiction beside this one here~! :D

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	37. Chapter 37

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku stood in front of the door of Gin's room, not exactly knowing what she should do.

She decided just to knock on the door to see if he was already in there, which would save them some time.

She knocked on the door, but the only thing that happened was the door opening, slowly revealing a room only dimly lit by the twilight.

Hesitating, Rangiku took a step forward, knowing she was going into Gin's private territory now.

But her curiosity won it from her manners, and Rangiku went outside.

Compared to Shūhei's room, Gin's room was very tidy and just smelled of... room. There wasn't a really particular smell lingering around in the room.

The room felt as if it was just a room, nothing more. Not a place you were supposed to be safe, and which seemed to embrace you when you wanted to be lonely. Your space, where no one should be coming when you didn't want it.

But this room didn't had that.

It was just a room. A storage for stuff owned by Gin who also didn't have that personal touch around them. They were just articles of use who where accidentally owned by someone.

She didn't really like the room, it was so... cold...

Then she saw one of the tatami mats had curled up, revealing a loose floorboard.

Rangiku silently walked up the floorboard and opened it. In it was lying a little dark square.

Curious, Rangiku gently took out the little square which turned out to be a notebook.

A diary?

Slightly grinning, Rangiku opened the little book.

The first sentence already showed it wasn't a girl's diary which started with "dear diary" followed by all those little troubles and thoughts and ended with the question to the diary what they should do.

Journal was a better word for the thing she was holding right now. Just a report of the day with some meanings and thoughts into it, gently intertwined with the problems, but not slightly as emotional as girls usually did it.

But why? Why was he doing a diary?

Something inside her told her he wasn't supposed to do this, but she couldn't think of a reason why he couldn't.

Quickly flipping over the pages of the diary, Rangiku saw her name jumping out of the mass of words.

She went back to the day where she had seen her name and started to read the entry.

It took her a while to realize which day it was, but it turned out to be the day Rangiku had met Gin on her way to Kūkaku for Hitsugaya's birthday.

It was first a bit casual chattering, but then it went the other way.

It started on about how irritating Aizen was, always bumping in when he was alone with Rangiku was and when he wanted to tell her the truth.

It also went on about how much he wanted to tell Rangiku the truth, the truth about how it was supposed to be.

But what was he raving about, saying this wasn't the true reality, had he gone mad?

But when she continued on reading, she also read something else

That he loved her so much that he would die for her, and that it hurt every day to live on in a reality without her.

"And if she could read this right now, I would tell her she was the only star in my universe, where I revolve around. The reason why I exist..." a voice behind Rangiku said.

A shock went through Rangiku's body and made her numb for a few seconds. She hadn't even sensed him coming in!

She forgot Gin could walk inside any minute, and they had made an appointment just to talk and now was she reading his journal, which was in his case as private as a diary.

When she was finally able to move, Rangiku moved her head to look around.

Gin was bowing over towards her, his head next to hers.

"Good afternoon, Rangiku," Gin said. "Is it interesting?"

"I... I..." Rangiku said. "Look, I'm really sorry-"

"Shh," Gin said, putting his finger on Rangiku's lips. "Don't be, maybe this was the best way to introduce the thing I wanted to talk about this evening: how it's supposed to be".

"What do you mean?" Rangiku said. "In your... journal you kept talking about wanting to tell me the truth. But what is this truth?"

"The truth is that we are supposed to be together, but some power changed something in history and this change made me lose the thing the most precious to me. The person the most precious to me. You."

"But?" Rangiku asked, véry confused. "How could that happen? I mean, history doesn't change just because it likes to. Or because someone wants to."

"I also don't know how it happened, but I know one thing: I really, réally miss you! But apart from that is there also something you should know."

"What?" Rangiku asked. "Do you want to-"

"This isn't about me. This is about something else. Aizen. He-"

Suddenly Rangiku smelled something she didn't notice up to now. The room hadn't had any scent as it didn't have anything personal.

But now there was a scent. A véry strong scent.

The smell of something burning.

Anxious, she looked at Gin who also stood there, frozen in mid-sentence. And then his eyes suddenly opened wide.

Flames suddenly burst up around them, setting the room on fire and cutting off any ways of escape.

* * *

Hey,

This was the new chapter already~!

Monday I'll be going on holiday for three weeks, so no chapters for then!

Have a nice holiday and see you after my holiday again.

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	38. Chapter 38

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Yes, I finally returned from my holiday, and I finally found time to write, it's pretty hard to start writing after such a long time again, sorry for this!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Rangiku's breath quickened as she looked around through the room which was surrounded by flames.

Smoke started to blind her and her breathing went more and more difficult with every breath she took.

"Stay low to the ground," Gin said muffled with his sleeve pressed to his mouth and nose. "You haven't got your zanpakutō with you by any chance?"

Rangiku shook her head. "And this fire... It's weird, but it feels like it's taking my power away... I tried to do some kidō to blast our way out of here, but it just didn't work..."

Gin nodded slowly. "I haven't got my zanpakutō with me either, so there is just one thing we can do..."

"What?" Rangiku asked puzzled. "Scream for help? I don't think I've got enough breath for that..."

She coughed a few times. It felt as if the smoke was filling her lungs, and no matter how hard she coughed, it didn't want to come out.

"I warned you, Gin," a voice suddenly spoke. "I'll let you escape for now but this is your last chance... When you betray my trust once again it will be your last time... And your last breath..."

"Who-?" Rangiku started, but before Rangiku could finish her sentence, Gin had already scooped her up, and with her in his arms he leaped through the flames who were reaching out for them.

Rangiku closed her eyes, waiting for the moment that the flames would reach her, and the moment her hair, skin or clothes would catch fire. But that moment didn't come.

Without even a single burn Rangiku made it through the flames, only to hear a voice roar "Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyōrinmaru!"

A huge, massive wall of water and ice splashed down on the building and its surroundings, extinguishing the flames and soaking everything.

Rangiku couldn't suppress a sharp breath intake followed by a huge shiver which went through her whole body when the icy water soaked her and Gin.

But Gin didn't even wince, and as Rangiku looked up, his eyes were as icy as the water that was gently dripping from his face, washing away the sooth.

"Gin, I- I'm sorry..." Rangiku started, but immediately stopped when Gin put her down without even looking at her and jumped off in the night, over the flooded part of the 3rd squad barracks from which water was still flooding down the lawn.

"Gin..." Rangiku whispered helpless.

She didn't notice a blanket being wrapped around her, and the concerned voices around her which said she had to be taken to the fourth squad barracks immediately because of the inhaling of smoke and the possible hypothermia she might have because of the icy water after the heat of the fire.  
She also didn't noticed the strong arms around her, lifting her up and the fact she was soaring through the air in the direction of the fourth squad barracks.

The only thing she could think of was that Gin had left her once again when she needed him, without telling her where she was going.

Suddenly, the already unnoticed world around her vanished, and Rangiku was lying on the ground, her vision unfocused.

When she looked up, her vision going in and out of focus, she saw Gin standing up there, staring at her.

She tried to speak, she tried to say his name, but although her mouth opened and closed, and although her lips formed the word flawless, no sound could be heard.

_"I'm sorry, Rangiku..." _Gin suddenly spoke, his voice echoing around in the all-white world surrounding them.

He turned around, and suddenly there was some person next to him, smirking down at her. A face so familiar but because of her vision too blurred to recognize. The smirking person also turned around, and started to walk.

_"Come, Gin..." _he spoke, in a voice nearly familiar enough, but still not able to be recognized.

Gin didn't say anything but just followed the person, his back going further and further away from her.

And finally, those much-hated words would finally come, and Rangiku heard herself scream.

_"Gin? Where are you going?"_

With difficulty, she stood up and tried to run.

_"No, Gin, wait!"_ Rangiku screamed, tears gathering in her eyes.

But although Gin and that other person hadn't been that far away from her and although she was running as fast as she could while they were only walking, she was unable to come any closer, and helpless she had to watch the distance between her and Gin becoming bigger and bigger.

"NO!" Rangiku screamed. "Don't leave me!"

Rangiku flew up straight, and nearly passed out again.

Strong hands caught her and put her gently down on something she recognized as a hospital bed in the fourth squad.

But why? Why was she here? She looked around and saw Shūhei's worried face close to hers.

Rangiku tried to sink down further in her pillows to create some more distance between their faces, because it was scaring her.

And then everything came back to her.

Gin's journal, Gin wanting to talk to her, the sudden fire which trapped them without any meanings of escape.

And Gin, who leapt through the flames with her in his arms without hesitating, taking all the damage for himself, and jumping off afterwards without telling her where he was going.

And that dream...

Suddenly, Shūhei's voice brought her back to reality.

"Shh," he said. "Calm down, Rangiku, it's okay, I'm here and no one is leaving you..."

Rangiku looked around, and saw Hinamori and Hitsugaya standing behind Shūhei.

But no Gin.

Shouldn't he be freezing now? Shouldn't he have any burns that should be treated right away?

But when she opened her mouth to ask for him, her breath was suddenly knocked out of her because Hinamori flung to her and held her in a tight embrace.

"Rangiku!" she said, bursting into tears. "I'm so glad... I thought you were going to díe!"

"A bad sixpence always turns up again," Rangiku said, smiling weakly while Hinamori released her again. "It takes more than a power-eating fire to take me down."

Shūhei started to mutter something about that Rangiku wasn't a bad sixpence when Hitsugaya interrupted him.

"Wait a minute," he said. "Did you just say "power-eating fire"?"

Rangiku nodded. "Well, it could also be the shock, but I wasn't able to use any Kidō, and I left my zanpakutō at the barracks, but-"

"There ís a power-eating fire technique," Hitsugaya said serious but also a little concerned. "It's a forbidden Kidō of a véry high level, but sometimes it's still used in very grave situations. But it really it's kido of over the level hundred. It's bakudō 113 to be precise, which surrounds the victim in huge walls of flames, suppressing and taking their spiritual and after a while also physical powers... It's a miracle you managed to escape from there, then!"

"Well, there wás a voice telling Gin he shouldn- telling him this was his last chance and that he would let him go for now..."

"Oh, so that's why you could escape and why I could end the kido with just my shikai, it was already starting to break down in power..." Hitsugaya said, nodding slowly.

"But-" Shūhei said slowly. "But that means someone was really attempting to k- to hurt Rangiku?"

"Well, concerning what that voice -whoever it might be- said, it was targeting Ichimaru, not Rangiku. Rangiku just accidentally appeared to be there..."

"I hope everything is all right with you, Matsumoto-fukutaicho?" a voice in the opening of the curtains around Rangiku's bed said.

Rangiku didn't need Hinamori's exclaiming to recognize the voice. But she didn't only recognize the person it belonged to, she also recognized the voice itself.

She had only heard it moments ago when she was trapped in the flames in Gin's room.

"You!" Rangiku exclaimed, breaking right through Hinamori's exclaim. "But- But you can't be? Why would you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about..." Aizen said. "Are you sure everything is all right?"

His voice was concerned and acting as if he really didn't know what Rangiku was talking about. But his eyes said something else.

His eyes were cold and menacing. The eyes of a murderer.

Or someone who had nearly committed murder in Aizen's case...

* * *

Yes!

To celebrate -and to apologize for- the fact that I'm finally writing again I decided to give you an extra long chapter~! Hope you liked it ;)

If you have any questions/tips/other things to say, don't be afraid to ask/tell me in a review~!

Well,

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	39. Chapter 39

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"I heard someone talking when I and G- when I and Ichimaru-taicho were engulfed in flames. First, I couldn't recognize the voice, but now-"

"You still don't..." Aizen said gently. Well, it was supposed to be gently and it sounded gently to the others, but to Rangiku it was the cold and smug voice of someone who knew he already won without someone who could ever do anything about it.

"I sympathize with you," he continued in the same voice. "I think I know how you feel. Puzzled... Confused... Angry, perhaps?"

Rangiku opened her mouth, wanting to snap at him he didn't know anything about how she felt at all, when Aizen added something.

"But I don't think that's the big question... Of course there's also the question how the fire started, by who, and why, but I think there is another question that should be answered. And that one can be answered right here, right now, by you, Rangiku."

"What do you mean?" Rangiku said, with a mix of confusing and disgust. "I didn't start the fire or had anything to do about it. Then I wouldn't be lying here, would I?"

"No, no," Aizen said, his mask of lies nearly breaking under the pressure of a huge grin that wanted to break through. "Why were you in Gin's room at the first place?"

Rangiku gasped. That bastard! He wanted to set everyone else against her with that question, hinting that she might be doing something with Gin that shouldn't be.

She turned around, only to see Shūhei looking at her in a cold, near-dead but also hurt stare. It was like he was saying _"how could you do this?" _to her just by looking at her.

If looks could kill, Rangiku would've been badly hurt by now...

"Shūhei, I-" Rangiku started, but Shūhei interrupted here.

"Rangiku, don't apologize," he said gravely. "If that's the way you want to walk, I won't stop you..."

After one more look, he turned around, wanting to leave.

"No! Shūhei, wait!" Rangiku cried. "It isn't the way you think it is! I didn't go there out of myself, he asked me to come!"

"So he was the one who asked you for a date, huh? I'll make sure he remembers that... But it's still sad you went, Rangiku..." Shūhei said without even looking at her.

"No, not for a date, you moron!" Rangiku half laughed, half cried. "I didn't know what he wanted to talk about, either! I-"

"I wanted to talk to her about some hollow attack in Rukongai the other day," a voice behind Rangiku said. "She was evolved in that one, and even defeated the hollow, but when I read the rapport about it, there was somethin' strange about it. The hollow's behaviour seemed different and it seemed it didn't attack out of itself, but felt threatened and tried to protect something. I wanted to ask Rangiku if this was only my wrong readings out of the rapport, or that it really was that way."

Rangiku looked around so fast she hurt her neck, but she didn't care.

_"God, why can you always sneak up on other people without anyone hearing you!" _Rangiku thought, rubbing her neck. _"And why am I always in hospital when I can finally talk to you! And why am I that often in hospital anyway?"_

But that wasn't important. He returned and made Aizen's question seem like an inappropriate question you wouldn't ask a lady.

"You sure?" Shūhei asked a bit confused, but even that bit vanished when Gin held up a slightly burned copy of a rapport written by Rangiku. And he knew it was Rangiku's, because he'd been sitting next to her when she wrote it, and he recognized it by the circular stain he made on it by putting his cup on the paper. And he even remembered Rangiku raving on about the hollow's odd behaviour, so that wasn't made up either. Was it really just an innocent work meeting instead of the date he suspected it to be?

In the meantime, Rangiku couldn't tear her gaze away from Gin. He saved her with a story so perfect you couldn't just made it up in a few minutes. He even had the copy of the rapport and knew the odd behaviour without ever having read it. Had he overheard them when she was writing it while talking about it to Shūhei. So he went just to get that copy and burn it slightly to make a really reasonable and believable story? That he even remembered such details after one or two days...

"Gin, shouldn't you go and get your lungs checked?" Aizen said sternly but with a force behind it that seemingly only Rangiku and Gin noticed.

"Nah, I already went, _Aizen-taicho_..." Gin replied, with the mock almost dripping off the last word.

"Are you sure, _Ichimaru_," Aizen said, stepping closer to Gin to look him right into the eyes.

"Oh, yes I am, _Sissuke_," Gin said, also stepping closer.

"_Whát_ did you call me?" Aizen replied with a véry dark look on his face, stepping even closer to make advantage of his height, although it was barely an inch more than Gin's height.

"Sissuke," Gin said, some smug returning to his face, together with that rare smile he could wear. "Like in _sissy..._"

Rangiku knew the smile wasn't directed to her, and neither was the dark look on Aizen's face, but still a shiver went down her spine. Gin never smiled. It was rare to see him smile like this, and it was even rarer to see him smile out of happiness.

"Okay, that's enough!" a voice suddenly broke the tension. "You two are both captains! Although you don't really behave like it right now!"

Hitsugaya who'd shut his mouth up to now, was staring at Gin and Aizen with a furious and icy look.

Hinamori was also looking at the two quarrelling captains, but she looked like she could burst out in tears any minute.

Gin and Aizen looked at each other for a few more dead-silent seconds, and then Gin tore his gaze away from Aizen, and turned around.

"I am sorry, Hitsugaya-taicho, you're right... It's low of me to sink to that level like this. My apologizes..." he said.

Rangiku had expected some mock in it, but couldn't trace it. He really said it like he meant it, and maybe he did...

But Hinamori didn't pay any attention to what Gin said. She was still staring at Aizen, who was still looking at the spot where Gin just stood. His hard, dark look was softening a bit, but it was still on a dangerous level.

"Aizen-taicho..." Hinamori said in a near-whisper, her voice breaking due to her tears.

"Come, Hinamori..." Aizen said, danger still in his voice. "I think we should leave now to gain Rangiku some rest... And maybe you should come too, Gin, you only seem to upset your beloved Matsumoto..."

Gin looked at Rangiku for a few seconds, and then he shook his head. "Nah, think I'll stay a few more minutes... So we can talk about who lit the fire... Or do yóu know who did it, then? If you do, there is no need for me to stay here, is there? So then I can come with you, somethin' you seem to want so badly..."

Aizen gritted his teeth, and then he turned around and walked away, his captain's cloak billowing after him.

Hinamori gave Rangiku one last smile, and then she ran after Aizen.

"I think I'll be going too," Shūhei said. "I still have some work to do, and Tōsen-taicho will ki- is not going to like it when I don't finish it before tomorrow..."

"Yes, me too, I still have Rangiku's paperwork to do on top of my own..." Hitsugaya said.

"Okay, if everyone's going, then I'll leave, too," Rangiku said, swaying her legs out of the hospital bed.

"Have ya gone mental?" Gin said. "Ya can't! Ya-"

"Hey, you ran away just after you leaped through the fire, and you are still walking, so why can't I, then?" Rangiku said.

"But-... Because-" Gin tried, but Rangiku didn't take that one.

"You took more damage than me so if there is sómeone who should be lying here, it's you, okay?"

"But- Oh well, come out of your bed, then..." Gin sighed. "But don't say I didn't warn ya, okay?"

"I won't~!" Rangiku said smiling.

And when she looked at Gin's face, it was like the sun was breaking through the clouds after a long and rainy day.

He was smiling down at her with a warmth that set her heart on fire...

* * *

Hey~!

This was the new chapter already~! ^-^

It became some longer because I couldn't find a good point to finish it, but I don't think you mind ;)

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	40. Chapter 40

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

"You don't need to help, I can walk myself, thank you~!" Rangiku said, and she pushed Gin a little away from her.

Gin's grin became even wider. "All right, all right, but remember I won't catch ya when ya fall..."

"You only won't because you won't nééd to~!" Rangiku said laughing.

Gin grinned softly and walked after Rangiku who was nearly skipping on her way back to the barracks.

This was all he ever hoped for. Just the two of them together without one of them being cross at the other. Just together...

But he was soon ripped away from this magic when they reached the barracks. He sighed. Now Rangiku was going to leave him and tomorrow he would see Shūhei walking next to Rangiku again, holding hands, without Rangiku even looking at him...

But when they reached the barracks, Rangiku turned around. "Uhm, do you want a cup of tea or something before you leave?"

Gin wanted to smile at her and accept her wonderful offer when something struck his mind.

He couldn't put Rangiku in danger again.

Even though he wouldn't tell her anything about how it was used to be and what he was doing with Aizen just to protect her and how much he loved her, Aizen would spot him again and suspect him again and think of a better way to take care he wasn't going to talk any more on a way that could put Rangiku in danger again.

But when seeing that lovely, smiling face it was so hard to hurt her just to protect her from really being hurt or maybe even killed.

He just couldn't... But he must...

"No, sorry, I think ya should rest a little now after all that happened..."

See? He didn't always have to hurt to protect!

"Nah, I already had plenty of rest when in the fourth squad barracks..." Rangiku said. "And if you're worrying about my work: I'll get it done later, I mustn't overwork myself, but I already slept plenty..."

"Well, it didn't seem like a relaxin' sleep to me, more like a unquiet sleep full of nightmares..."

Rangiku didn't know what to say for a few seconds. How did he know that? He hadn't even been there when she was sleeping!

"Well..."

"It's better if I go now, ya need to rest and Kira is managin' the third squad all by his own at the moment, and he needs some help... Otherwise he'll be too stressed and go drinkin' again tonight..."

"Not tonight, the next drinking eve is planned tomorrow evening..." Rangiku said with a little smile.

"Still drinkin' that bad stuff?" Gin grinned. "You shouldn't, you know how bad it is, it ruins your little grey cells you don't seem to use very often..."

"Little grey cell- What?" Rangiku said laughing. "Well, you quite dare to say something! Why don't you come tomorrow evening to see how your vice-captain can drink without being even stressed at all!"

"Okay," Gin said, without really thinking of putting Rangiku in danger. But he decided even Aizen would know how well Rangiku remembered things when being drunk. She didn't. "Okay, I'll be there! How late do I see you and where?"

"The sake bar "Sake Blossom Tree" in Rukongai district three," Rangiku said. "At 8 p.m. Well, see you then, foxface," she added with a little wink, turning around.

"See ya then, little flower," Gin said, still smiling widely. He also turned around, wanting to walk away, when Rangiku turned around again to say something.

"Gin?"

"Yes?" Gin answered, not turning around but his grin so wide he was afraid it might spit his face in two.

"Do you know that smile suits you a whole lot better than that depressive look you always got on your face?"

Gin grinned softly. "If you keep on being that nice to me, it might even stay that way..."

Rangiku smiled and entered the tenth squad barracks. She didn't always understand Gin, but she knew he always wanted the best for her.

One time, he really acted like he cared about her and even really loved her, but the next time, it was like he wanted to stay as far away from her as possible, while hurting himself with it too. Because she didn't like to admit it, but she was really hurt when Gin denied loving her and staying away from her and even looking away from her, afraid to make eye contact.

But it was still strange. It was like Gin loved her so very much, but was also carrying a deadly, contagious disease. He couldn't come close to her or touch her, but the love was driving him crazy. But sometimes he couldn't resist it and then he cáme close to her, and made sure she knew he loved her, only to regret it even more afterwards which resulted in trying to stay further away from her the next time.

But maybe he did.

He didn't have a disease, but maybe there was something putting him in danger when he tried to talk to her about certain things. Someóne who tried to prevent him telling things she shouldn't be supposed to know...

And maybe she even knew who it was, although she was sure of his voice.

The voice in the fire...

* * *

Hey,

This was already the next chapter, hope you liked it~!

I am, unfortunately, back to school again, and I need to settle down again and take up usual business and homework again so the chapters might take some longer and come irregular. Hope you don't mind!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	41. Chapter 41

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

The next day went past in a blur and before Rangiku knew it Gin was standing in the doorway, waiting for her to come along.

"You comin'?" he asked her, grinning at her and relaxing against the doorpost. It felt so right, like it always had been like this.

"Yeah, yeah..." Rangiku said, hastily finishing her last sheet of paperwork. "Just a minute!"

"Ya're doing your paperwork?" Gin said, his grin becoming even wider with some unbelief coming with it.

"Yes, I am," Rangiku said, giving him a quick smile. "Otherwise I'm not allowed to leave the barracks..."

"And ya're listenin' to him?"

Rangiku grinned and put the sheet on top of the pile next to her. "Whatever, I'm already finished now. Let's go!"

Gin stood up from the doorpost and let Rangiku walk past him before following her.

"Ya really shouldn't do this, Ran-chan..." Gin said, some seriousness and maybe even concern in his voice. "Drinking is bad for you... And it's dangerous..."

"Yeah, and walking around with your eyes closed is also dangerous," Rangiku said, walking some quicker than she usual did. "You can bump into everything or fall down a cliff or-"

"I didn't know I worried you so much by walking with my eyes closed..." Gin said grinning on a light tone, but you could feel the hidden hint in it.

"I-" Rangiku said. "It's just like you don't see me standing... Or anyone else!" she added quickly when Gin's grin started to wide. "Like you're not wanting to face anyone... Like you don't want to face reality, don't want to know the truth,"

"While I am the only one who knows the réal truth..." Gin sighed, his smile slipping off his face.

"You're not starting about that agáin, are you?" Rangiku snapped a bit irritated.

"I-" Gin said, but he shut his mouth again when seeing the look on Rangiku's face. "When ya would be the only one knowin' the truth, ya'd do the same..." he added darkly.

"Oh, cóme on!" Rangiku exclaimed. "It's all between your ears! I know it's hard to admit you're not 100% sane, but-"

Gin stopped walking. "I ám sane, and I am nót a liar..." Gin said, putting pressure on each word. "It ís the fact everyone thinks I'm crazy that's drivin' me mad! D'ya think I like it? All that attention? All the wróng attention? Everyone talkin' about me and laughing about me behind my back. Even yóu! While ya were supposed to love me! And when you think I love ya just because of you're looks, I'll only love ya less because it's only your personality that makes me protect ya with all my life. And yes, I am protectin' ya, even more than you can imagine... Even lónger than ya can imagine... You see, when I was young, I took the wrong road, like most kids without parents or any other kind of guidance do. And searchin' for money and a way to exist I landed on the wrong place at the wrong person. A person who knows to manipulate ya só well by using the right words and persons. Like you, Rangiku. He makes me do what he wants just by saying your name. And it goes from bad to worse. You don't know the things that I've done, have to do, going to do... That very person... I hate him! And I think he's standing behind me right now... So run, Rangiku, because I've probably said too much already..."

A power was emitting from Gin, a dark power which was partly directed to her, to scare her away, but Rangiku knew she wasn't that much in danger. But the person behind Gin was...

Rangiku tried to move, but the part of Gin's power directed to her, even though it was just a fraction of what he was sending to the one behind him, was preventing her of moving, while it was clear it was the smartest thing to do now.

"A good evening, everyone," a gentle voice said.

Aizen. Again. But this time, Rangiku wasn't irritated by him. She was glad not a massacred murder or some other creepy villain was standing behind Gin, but just one of the other captains. Rangiku relaxed and released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, expecting Gin to apologize now every minute, explaining he just didn't recognize him in the heat of the moment.

But Gin didn't.

He kept standing there, emitting all that power to Aizen, and if looks could kill, Aizen would have been worse than just dead.

"Rangiku, if ya want to live, then run. Just run..."

"That's not a very nice way to talk to someone... Like I am such a threat to anyone here. Maybe you should put your power a little down, you're burdening your beloved... date?"

Gin looked up, his blue eyes wide open, at Rangiku, who was starting to sweat a little.

"Shut yer-" Gin started, but he didn't came far.

Rangiku slapped Gin across the face.

It was a good slap, it hit hard and the sound echoed around for a while after dying away.

"Behave yourself, Gin!" she said, breathing heavily. "And maybe he'd loved it to be true, but I am nót his date..."

"Aizen, I'll kill ya!" Gin whispered on an ice-cold tone that sent a shiver down Rangiku's spine. "Watch yer back, 'cause I can pierce it any minute!"

Gin didn't look up when he heard the footsteps that ran away from him. Maybe it was better this way, Rangiku not loving him when he would die after killing Aizen. Because he had to stop Aizen, and he was sure it was the last thing he would do, but he didn't mind.

"So I guess you won't be my man any more, then?" Aizen asked on a cold but yet business-like tone.

"No, Aizen," Gin said. "I'm glad I don't have to explain that to ya. Walk to hell alone..."

"I still got Tōsen, mind," Aizen said turning around. "And soon I'll be up at my throne with enough loyal servants around me, who would like to accompany me on my way to ultimate glory..."

Gin just stood there, breathing heavily, not knowing the trouble he'd be in tomorrow.

* * *

Hey,

This is the next chapter already~!

Sorry it took me some long, but it took a while for my well of inspiration to start flowing again and homework is also a big bother blocking that well... The coming week(s) I'll have some tests coming, so the updating might become some slower, but I'll try to keep the work going!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	42. Chapter 42

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

**~Answers~**

Kigaroo: some of my vowels have accents on them to express exaggeration or a breaking voice and things like that. If they are irritating, please feel free to say so!

* * *

Gin strolled restless through Seireitei, not wanting to return to his barracks.

He really had wanted to kill Aizen last night and stop following all his plans, but when he started threatening with hurting or even killing Rangiku, he just couldn't do it...

Because of Rangiku, everything that happened in the soul society had slipped past him, but last night Aizen had just updated him on everything and explained some more of his plans to him.

Rukia, who had been returned to the soul society under arrest and in a very weakened state, was, according to Aizen, the holder of a Hōkyoku made by Urahara, who was far more powerful than the one Aizen created when Gin was just a kid. And he wanted that Hōgyoku.

But to get everything going according to his plan, there was blood that needed to flow.

Tonight, the Central 46 would die.

46 people, just because of one man with an unquenchable lust of power...

But otherwise it wouldn't be the blood of 46 innocent but unknown people, but the blood of one innocent -well, maybe not that innocent- and very well-known and loved girl. Hís girl. Well, that what she should've been...

And then the execution date would be moved up.

This was because some bloke with a sword bigger than himself and orange hair called Ichigo was going to save Rukia, probably accompanied by a whole team, and this way they wouldn't have enough time to ruin his plans before Aizen got the Hōkyoku out of Rukia.

And his role in his plans was to make sure Ichigo didn't enter Seireitei by the west gate, but by Kūkaku's fire canon so they would be scattered and less powerful.

But he didn't want to.

All he wanted was everything to be well again between him and Rangiku, and he didn't even care any more if it was with the right history or not.

But with all he needed to do, she would love him even less, but he couldn't do anything else. If he refused to go along with Aizen, not he, but Rangiku would be the one punished. He should act like she didn't care to him at all so he would prevent her from getting hurt.

But it just wasn't possible.

Even if he just said her name coolly and without love and respect, it felt as if his heart was breaking.

When he turned around the corner and saw Rangiku in a heartfelt embrace with Shūhei, mouths too close, he froze on the spot.

He wanted to run, he wanted to scream, he wanted to hit Shūhei in the face as hard as he could for touching his girl.

But to be honest, the thing he wanted the most was just to be standing on Shūhei's place...

But he couldn't and never would be.

He needed to turn around before anyone saw him staring.

Before he would be beat up by Shūhei because he was leering at his girl.

Before Rangiku would see him and make another crack in his already ruinous heart.

But his feet wouldn't move and his eyes wouldn't close.

And his heart just won't listen.

When he finally got away, he was heading towards Aizen.

But when he passed the street leading to the west gate, he saw a little group of teenagers standing there.

Some girl with a big front, a Quincy with a quite weird outfit, a tinted colossus, a black cat and some guy with dandelion hair wearing a shinigami uniform but with a giant spiritual pressure he'd never sensed before.

Rukia's save squad. Was that orange guy Ichigo?

Not now...

Please, any time, but not now...

He didn't want to play the bad guy again and to get scolded by the Soul Society because he let them escape later on.

But if he'd walk away right now, he'd get scolded as well...

The guy with the orange hair started running towards the gate, but the gate slammed down in front of his nose.

A group of shinigami, under which was Shūhei, stood in front of the gate, talking about if they needed to worry or not.

But when they made sure Jidanbō was going to take care of them, they left again, talking about nonsense as paperwork and sake.

But he didn't leave.

He sat down and listened to the sounds of the fight, anxious to do something wrong with Rangiku having to pay for it.

Finally, after some clashes, he heard Jidanbō using his special ten-blast axe attack. Gosh, someone really needed to learn that guy how to count...

And then it fell silent.

A few seconds went past, and then a wailing sound tore through the air.

Ichigo had broken Jidanbō's axes.

Any minute.

Any minute now the gate was going to open and he would have to act like he was supposed to.

But he couldn't.

His head was aching and he could remember two things at the same time.

Being with Rangiku.

Not being with Rangiku.

Being with Rangiku.

Not being with Rangiku.

First, in his youth, it hadn't been that powerful, but he felt like he was going to be singed if he touched Rangiku now.

Just a few seconds perhaps?

And then it roared through all off Seireitei.

The west gate was being opened.

* * *

Hey,

I don't know how much people here watch Doctor Who, but the latest episode was also playing with timelines that were based on "what if...". It's pretty cool to see a similar idea of yours in such a big serie...

Well, any way, for the non-Whovians under us: hope you like it~! And...

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	43. Chapter 43

Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry it took me so long but I'm having a réally busy period with a test week and learning for the test week and everything... Sorry I didn't update sooner!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza and Cerice Belle! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)**

* * *

Gin walked to the gate that Jidanbō was opening.

"What? What is it?" the guy with the dandelion head said.

"This ain't good..." Gin said, mocking but with a sad undertone. "This really ain't good... You're a gatekeeper, you shouldn't open gates..."

"Tshey won of mine fair and sjkuare," Jidanbō said. "Sjo mine hasj to open the gatesj, tshen."

"That ain't the rules," Gin said, laying his hands on Shinsō's hilt. "If a gatekeeper loses..."

He drew Shinsō out of his sheet and steadied him in front of him in fluid movement.

"He'll die!"

Damn, he would get some trouble with that later. He should probably move along and push that dandelion head out of Seireitei as Aizen told him.

He was a whimp, still doing what Aizen told him.

"Well, that's what he's supposed to do..." Gin said, sheeting Shinsō again. "But I'll keep it to a warning, this time... Have a good day~!"

It felt so right and it made him so happy to just turn around and not to do what Aizen told him.

"Buts whaitsj a minnute..." Jidanbō said slowly. "Arren't thsou sjupposjed to kick tshem outs of Sjheireitei again?"

"Well, why are you openin' the gates, then, if you expect me to kick them out again?" Gin said, stopping with walking away. "Go on, dandelionhead, free Rukia and bring justice to Seireitei, somethin' we're all longin' for, but can't bring ourselves."

"Wha-?" the dandelionhead started.

"Big spiritual pressure, sword as long as yourself, a head like a dandelion... You must be Ichigo, aren't you? On a mission to save Rukia for god knows what she all did to and for you? Well, go and get her, then. I'm making this easy for you..."

"But- But-"

"Butts are underneath your backs. Do you want to save her or not?" Gin sighed.

"Y-yes, of course I want!" Ichigo said.

"Well, go and fetch her! Bring peace to here, her, yerself and kill Aizen for me if you bump into him okay? Nah, better don't, even I won't win of him in a fair and square battle..."

"O-okay then! Right!" Ichigo said determined. "Let's go!"

His group ran into Seireitei on their journey to save Rukia. The black cat ran along for a while, but stopped when she passed Gin.

"Ichimaru, what the hell are you doing..."

"Not doin' what I am supposed to do, but also not doin' somethin' I'm not supposed to do..." Gin said. "Bit hard to explain. But I think the same as ya. Somethin' isn't right here, and I know what, and it really shouldn't happen..."

The black cat stared at him for a moment, and then nodded. "Whatever. Thank you, Ichimaru."

"Here y'are~!"

He strolled along a few streets before the familiar voices started shouting "Alarm! Alarm! Intruders! I repeat, intruders! Everyone back to their stations! Alarm! Alarm!"

Eventually, he reached his barracks and entered them only to run into a very upset Kira.

"Ichimaru-taicho! I was just doing my work when the alarm went off... We have to stay here and await orders, although Zaraki already wanted to run off together with all of the 11th squad and-"

"Calm down, Kira, calm down..." Gin said, a smile lightening up his face. "They're not dangerous. They're getting straight the strange things happening here."

"Wha-" Kira started, but a messenger entered the barracks with the message the captains had to gather for a emergency meeting.

On his own pace, Gin got there in time to be the last one attending to the meeting. Even Zaraki was there, although you could see he'd rather be running through the streets of Seireitei, searching for the intruders.

"Wow, ya're all here, only for me?" Gin said, just able to keep the smiling a little down. "I didn't expect such a big audience and haven't even prepared a speech..."

"Stop clowning around, Ichimaru," Zaraki snarled. "Just get over with it so we can track those intruders down!"

"Ichimaru Gin," Yamamoto roared over Zaraki's snarling. "Declare the reason why you weren't able to stop the intruders at the gate".

"Well, seein' I didn't prepare a speech, I don't think I have anythin' to say, somethin' that will be appreciated by Zaraki I believe. I just thought they were passing through. What's so bad with that? Why can't a shinigami enter the realms of the shinigami?"

"He's not an official shinigami! He's a shinigami who obtained his powers on an unofficial way!"

"Is there a difference, then?" Gin asked boldly. "Between going to school to learn how to handle your powers and getting them from someone and being taught in a few days how to handle it?"

"Watch your language, Ichimaru! Your punishment will be advanced to a follow-up meeting after we defeated the intruders and put them back where they belong! I now declare this meeting end-"

"Finally!" Zaraki roared, and he bustled off, almost through the doors of the first squad barracks, which opened just in time.

"He really has got the spirit, hasn't he?" Gin said while everyone around him made their preparations to leave.

"Maybe..." a voice next to them said. "Although I guess you're also happy with this... A meeting being ended before your punishment was stated. How fortunate. Maybe they'll forget it. Or maybe you won't be able to be punished any more..."

"Is that a threat, Aizen?" Gin asked loudly, and Tōshirō, who was just walking past them, looked op and stopped walking.

"Because of what you said we could maybe start thinking that the intruders aren't that dangerous, but someone who's in our midst all that time. Someone we always trusted without seeing his real face..."

"And what do you mean with that?"

"That you have to watch what you're doing because you've lost a man here..."

"I hope he knows what this means for him..."

"Oh, I'm sure she can defend herself. She's not the little defenceless girl she used to be. And there will be a strong guy around her protecting her, maybe even two if you include the one we're talking about..."

"We'll see, Gin, we'll see... But remember he wasn't my only helper..."

"I do, Aizen, I do. I just wanted to say she wasn't on her own either with at least him to protect her, willing to give his life for her..."

"I'm glad about that, because he'll have to. I'll take care of that!"

Tōshirō slowly walked off, pondering on about what he'd just heard. He didn't know who they'd been talking about, but he'd better start warning some people before it was too late...

* * *

Hey,

Yeah, I finally did it! I'm so happy now! Hopefully, this will help me making my tests. I've got an English test due within a few hours, so I've had enough practice, I hope ;)

Wish me luck!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	44. Chapter 44

Hey everyone,

I AM BACK! XD Sorry it took this long... I really had a giant writers block, a test week and all sorts of excuses that made me not wanting/willing/able to write, and it all ended up like craptalk any way... -.- But then my crush started behaving like a jerkface for the past time, so this gave me some inspiration :) Hope you like it!

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza, laisla (even though you're Spanish Google translate will help me ^-^) and ****Cerice Belle****!**

* * *

"And then Tōshirō told me I should watch out for the third company, especially for Ichimaru-taicho, but maybe even for Kira too..." Hinamori said, finishing her story to Matsumoto, her eyelids drooping.

Rangiku sighed and patted Hinamori on her shoulder to comfort her.

"Hey, it won't all end up thát bad..." she said to her, smiling. "And if you just sit here next to me, raving about everything you want to tell while I do my paperwork we can go and have a drink when I finish, okay?"

"Oh..." Hinamori said. "Actually I already promised Shūhei and Kira I'd go drinking with them this afternoon, they are picking me up here any minute now..."

"You- oh," Rangiku said, terribly disappointed. "I met Shūhei this morning and he didn't say anything..."

"Well-" Hinamori started, but the rest was drowned into Shūhei and Kira entering Rangiku's office.

"Hello, Hinamori-san, are you ready?" Kira asked politely. "Oh, and hello, Matsumoto-san."

Shūhei just gave a short nod and leaned against the door frame.

Rangiku sighed. "Shūhei, if you wait a few minutes I can finish this and come along, please?"

"I told Kyōraku we'd already be there by now, so we have to hurry," Shūhei said shortly, almost like he was ignoring Rangiku. "Finally coming now?"

He pushed himself away from the door frame and started to leave.

"Hisagi-san, shouldn't you-" Kira started, but Shūhei had already left.

Hinamori threw an apologetic look at Rangiku and walked after Shūhei.

Kira sighed. "I really don't know what's wrong with Shūhei today, he's so short and easily pissed... He almost yelled at me when I wasn't following him fast enough because Tōsen-taicho wanted to talk to me, and usually he highly respects Tōsen-taicho... "

Rangiku was about to say something when Shūhei yelled from outside.

"Kira, are you coming or not? Otherwise you'll have to pay the drinks!"

Kira sighed, also throwing an apologetic look at Rangiku before running outside.

Tears were starting to gather in Rangiku's eyes while she heard them leave. She just could hear Kira's "shouldn't Rangiku come along?" being answered by Shūhei with a "nah, no need for that...".

It wasn't that she was that eager to drink or to hang out, actually she hadn't planned drinking and had only proposed it to Hinamori to brighten her up, but being brushed away and ignored like that by Shūhei, who was always admiring her and telling her how great she was, was overwhelming her, making her dizzy, making her want to scream at him...

The tears finally found their way out while she was being pumped up because of Shūhei, who was behaving like some first-rate jerk, like Hinamori, who just went along with it without even questioning it... She knew she shouldn't think any of this, but it was just being stuffed into her head.

The need for a drink grew, but she couldn't break free from the circle of thoughts and worries.

Then the office door opened again and Rangiku raised her tear-stained face, ready to yell at Hitsugaya that he needed to get the hell out with his paperwork and leave her alone, but instead of a small white-haired captain there was a tall silver-haired figure being blurred by her tears. She knew her tears were disabling her sight a lot, but this couldn't be Hitsugaya... It was...

"Oh, ma poor girl..." Gin just sighed, not louder than a whisper but Rangiku could still easily hear it over the silent sound of her tears flowing.

Gin hastened towards her side and laid an arm around her, pulling her close but with a comforting, friendly distance still between them.

At least, that was what he meant to do, but Rangiku clasped herself at him, pushing her face into his chest.

He didn't ask who'd hurt her. He didn't try to comfort her. He just was there for her, nothing more but surely nothing less.

He just let her cry and worry and think all she shouldn't think until she had calmed down a little.

When her crying where just some sobs, Gin gently pulled her away.

"Everythin' okay?" he asked worried.

It was only then that Rangiku realized what she'd done. Just crying her eyes out on the chest of one of the captains of the Gotei 13, who she should respect, not cry on...

"Oh, I-I am sorry-" Rangiku started, hastily wiping the tears from her face while bowing in apologize.

But Gin just simply caught her arm and heaved her up again.

"Doesn't matter, ya looked like ya needed a cry," he said, shrugging.

"But..." Rangiku started. "On your...?"

Then, it was like the sun was breaking through heavy clouds on a rainy day:

Gin smiled.

Usually, smiling was strange to Gin, also known as the "Sad Fox". But when he smiled, it was so natural, like he was doing it every minute of the day.

Rangiku found herself staring, so she quickly looked away, turning red into the face. She used to be so calm and certain around men, but Gin was different, he made her like a little girl again, shy, uneasy and uncertain what to do.

Grinning, Gin turned around, ready to go. "Well, see ya, then."

But he couldn't leave like this.

"Gin...?" Rangiku said a little uncertain.

"Yes?" Gin replied, turning around, still smiling.

And then she was in his arms, words failing her.

Gin just stood there for a few seconds while she clamped herself at him, but then he embraced her, stroking her hair just the way she liked it.

Because he knew.

In the other timeline, he had done it before so many times and got all the experience and knowledge about what she liked him to do.

But he just stood there, holding her, being there for her, just how she liked it the most.

No kisses, no little words and lies, but just a big hug and being there for her when she needed him. Pity she didn't need him that often, now...

"Well, seeing you won't be going out tonight, do you have time for a stroll with me through the night?" Gin asked, trying to sound casually but the hopes fluttering in his chest, like some trapped butterflies. Rising, like an enormous beast.

And it really seemed like fireworks exploded when he heard her reply.

"Yes, Gin, I'd really like to do that..."

* * *

Hey,

This was already the chapter~!

Inspiration is flowing now and I only realize just now how much I missed it. I still have some problems with writing everything down the way I want it, but eventually I will obtain everything the way I like it. I hope I get another chapter done soon!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy

P.s.: hey, it seems a dorky crush can be good for at least óne reason! Because yes, Shūhei's dorky behaviour was inspired by that of my crush ;)

Oh, and what do you think: should I write an extra long Valentine special?


	45. Chapter 45  Valentine's Special!

Hey everyone,

Here is the new chapter! Sorry if it's very depressive because I discovered on Facebook that my crush is in a relationship... :'( I mean, he could act all jerky and everything, but I still loved him... Why didn't I just tell him? This didn't really put me in a Valentine mood so sorry for the fact that the extra long Valentine Special is delayed...

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza, ****Cerice Belle**** and**** laisla!**

* * *

Gin and Rangiku walked outside, hand in hand. Gin still couldn't believe it that he was really walking here, the one who he always loved so close to him.

But Rangiku wasn't there with her thoughts. She was thinking of Shūhei, of how bluntly he had brushed her off and how eager he had been to leave.

Did he even love her or was it all just one big lie? Did he only want her for what she offered to him, not for who she was?

She looked to Gin, who was walking next to her, just lightly holding her hand.

Shūhei always wanted to put his arm around her, or put his arm through hers to make sure everyone saw they were together.

And he was always talking, always wanting to say something, never giving her the chance to get a word between it, even when she really needed to talk to him to get something off her chest, or to talk about her problems he didn't seem to notice.

But Gin had immediately seen something was wrong and had run to her side to comfort her and to let her cry and say everything she wanted if she needed to, but he was also fine with her remaining silent.

Gin might look so weird, cold and far away but if she had to be honest, she loved Gin more than Shūhei at the moment.

She sighed. What on earth was she thinking? But the worst was that she couldn't say that it wasn't true.

She really did love Gin more.

It was just this evening, probably, but it was like finding a hidden cupboard somewhere, you never knew it was there and you can never forget about it and slowly on you start using it.

She realized how long she'd been looking for someone like Gin, someone who listened to her, someone who respected her for who she really was, not for who she pretended to be. The serious, loving but also humorous woman instead of the popular drinking "beast" she pretended to be in front of Shūhei, just because he loved her that way.

Because Shūhei started out as a really nice and caring boy, but as time passed by he started to see her as a woman, someone whose right place was in the kitchen or the bedroom, not a friend whose place was just next to you, wherever that was...

"Gin...?" Rangiku started carefully.

"Yes, Rangiku-chan?" Gin answered, giving her hand he was still holding the slightest squeeze.

"Y-You know Valentine's Day is coming up, huh...?" Rangiku continued, hesitating a little. "Do you have...?"

"Nope," Gin finished for her. "I don't have a date. Why the interest?"

"Well..." Rangiku started. "I..."

"HEY!" a raw, heavily drunk voice suddenly yelled, tearing Rangiku away from her thoughts, feelings and confessions. "Getta hell awuy vrrom mai gurl!"

Rangiku looked up, recognizing a part of Rukongai she and Shūhei used to go drinking.

So she wasn't surprised when she looked in Shūhei's red, drunk face, with Hinamori hanging next to him. Kira was sitting on the other side of the table, but it seemed he hadn't touched the sake, yet, seeing his cup was empty and the bottle still full.

"S-sorry, Matsumoto-san," Kira started. "I wanted to wait for you but Shūhei and Hinamori already went ahead and... got drunk... My deepest apologizes!"

"Y-Yeah!" Shūhei interrupted Kira. "But inzted yu god on wid that foksfazed bustard! I'll zzlam hiz head off righd nuw!"

"Shūhei, please!" Rangiku said. "We were just on a walk, nothing more!"

"It's not nize to chead, Rangiku-zann," Hinamori giggled. "Shūhei really llovez yu... Well, your *hic*s that iz... Becuz yur lookz ar the only thing tzat countz fur him, he zzaid..."

"Hinamori-kun, don't, you'll regret it tomorrow..." Kira sighed. "Shūhei, where are you going?" he added at Shūhei who'd stood up from the table, stumbling towards Gin and Rangiku.

Kira already wanted to stand up when Gin gestured him to stay down. "I'll take care of this, Izuru, you just take care of Hinamori-san... Makes sure she drinks at least some water against the hangover headache of tomorrow and some black coffee if you want her to sober up too."

Izuru nodded. "Understood, Ichimaru-taicho!"

"Nnow comon her yu baztart!" Shūhei yelled, gulping down the bottle he still had in his one hand while drawing his zanpakutō with the other.

"Shūhei, you idiot, what the hell are you doing!" Kira yelled. "Even though it's war we shouldn't use our zanpakutō's among each other!"

But without any warning, Shūhei shot straight at Rangiku, but suddenly Gin was there, getting the full impact of Shūhei's zanpakutō in his guts.

Rangiku felt the zanpakutō slightly brushing her skin after it tore her clothes, but it did nothing more than that.

Then, Gin fell down on his knees, coughing up blood while Kira forced the last bits of coffee up Hinamori's lips before jumping up to get a hold of Shūhei.

But Rangiku was quicker.

"Bastard, what have you done?" Rangiku cried, before slapping him full across the face.

Seemingly, this worked just as well as the strong coffee Hinamori just had, because Shūhei finally sobered up for as far as possible.

"Rangiku...? Why...? I-" he said, looking down to see his bloodstained zanpakutō and Gin trembling to stay on his knees, blood all over him.

Then he sighed, turned around, and left without a word.

"Hisagi-san, where are you going?" Kira asked. "You can at least-"

"Shut up," Shūhei said gloomy, not hesitating for a second to get away from there.

In the meantime, Gin's knees had given in and he was lying on the ground while Rangiku was holding his head in her hands.

"Everything will be okay, Gin!" she cried, tears falling down from her eyes onto his face. "I'll get you to the fourth squad barracks and they'll-"

But words were failing her, so she just heaved Gin up and with some of Kira's support she managed to walk.

"W-what's going on...?" Hinamori asked sleepily, finally sobered up enough to wake up from drunkland. "Why... Who... Ichimaru-taicho? What the hell happened to him?"

"Shūhei, but it's kind a long story," Rangiku groaned under Gin's weight. "I'll explain it as soon as we get at the fourth squad barracks..."

"...Rangiku...?" Gin suddenly whispered hoarsely, coughing up some more blood.

"Yes, Gin?" Rangiku said.

"I... I trust you..." Gin said, managing a smile before everything went black before his eyes.

* * *

Hey,

This finally was the Valentine's Special~!

Sorry for the delay and the gloomyness but I didn't want all love and happiness as I wasn't really in the mood for that.

After like half an hour I sobered up from my love/heartache, and realized the bastard he was and that I actually didn't really love him like before...

Oh, and did you realize this has 1402 words? Like in Valentine's Day, 14-02? ^^

See ya~!

SeireiteiFantasy


	46. Chapter 46

Hey everyone,

Here is the new chapter! Sorry for taking so long, but I had a test week and no inspiration, and that's a bad combo ;) Geez, I really don't know what I put into this story already, maybe I should put an end to it... So I started checking the other chapters and found all sorts of mistakes and everything.

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, **protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, ****Mungetsu, ****bunannza, ****Cerice Belle**** and**** laisla!**

* * *

Rangiku's heart broke right there, while supporting a bleeding Gin who claimed to trust her even after so many happened.

All this time she went with Shūhei, hurting Gin more every day while he was the one that cared most about her.

About the person she was, not the one she pretended to be in front of Shūhei.

And the only thing she could see of that Shūhei right now was his back, vanishing into the darkness of the night.

He hadn't said anything to comfort her, he wouldn't stand by her side.

He didn't even help her to get Gin to the fourth squad barracks to heal him.

He just wasn't there for her...

"Shūhei!" Rangiku suddenly yelled. "You bastard! It's over!"

Then she started heaving Gin to the fourth squad barracks.

It all seemed to go too slow and to her feeling it took ages before they finally reach the fourth squad barracks.

When she finally reached it, Gin was taken from her by Unohana.

Everything seemed to be one big blur after then, half asleep, half concious.

Hospital lights, blood and black spots. Healing Kidō's.

Finally, she found herself waking up in a chair next to a hospital bed. Slowly blinking, she opened her eyes and looked around.

Propped up against the pillows in the bed was Gin, his blue eyes open.

"So, you're awake, then..." Gin said softly.

"I-" Rangiku started, but Gin interrupted her.

"Ya don't need to say that yer sorry," Gin said, a ghost of a smile on his face, but still not looking at her. "It was my own choice."

It was quiet for a moment before Rangiku spoke again.

"I broke up with Shūhei..." she said, staring at her folded hands in her lap.

"I expected so," Gin answered. "But ya shouldn't blame him. I mean, he was drunk and saw us together. He doesn't like me and really loves you, so he sorta exploded. And he couldn't behave, because he was drunk. So you should-"

"I don't have to do anything," Rangiku replied, cutting him off. "I won't apologize to him or make up with him and hurt you even more. Like Hinamori said, it's only my looks that he cares about and-"

"Hinamori was drunk as well and probably heard it from a drunk Shūhei. When people are drunk they tend to say things they regret later."

"But there is always a source of truth in a lie, isn't there? You tell lies, so you should know..."

"I don't lie, I- just don't tell some things..." Gin said finally after a few seconds of deadly silence, getting a little red in the face.

Rangiku smiled. It was nice to sit here and be silent, and only talk when needed. But her duty was calling.

"I'm sorry, Gin, but I really think I have to go now... It's war, those ryoka's are getting all over the place because you let them in..."

Gin's smile faded away. "No, Rangiku, please stay a little longer. Wait, what? You called me-"

"Gin, yes. Any problems with that?" Rangiku said innocently smiling. "Oh, sorry, it should be Ichimaru-taicho, of course, I am sorry, Captain of the third division!"

Gin couldn't help the broad grin that spread over his face.

Rangiku stood up. "Sorry, Gin. But I really have to go now, I need to put those kids back to Kindergarten," she added, smiling.

Gin smiled back. "Watch your step, though, they might be stronger than you think. And... watch your step around Aizen, too, I will tell you later why..."

Rangiku smiled and then she left. She enjoyed finally having a silent moment to herself as she walked through the streets of Seireitei, when she spotted a lonely small figure on the roof of the fifth squad barracks when she passed. Rangiku recognized Hinamori and jumped onto the roof, landing and sitting down next to her. Hinamori turned out to be even more down than before, although Rangiku couldn't really figure out why.

"It's just... why do we have to fight?" Hinamori sighed, on the verge of tears. "I'm afraid I'm not good enough and that I may disappoint Aizen-taicho..."

Fear spread through Rangiku, hearing that name and remembering how Gin had spoken of him. But she shouldn't tell Hinamori to fear or avoid Aizen-taicho, it would be suspicious and Hinamori would think she was mad.

"You... can... talk to someone to get it off your chest. Me, or Kira or-"

She almost said Shūhei, but decided not to on the last moment.

"Or Aizen~!" Hinamori filled in happily, jumping up. "Thank you, Rangiku-san, that's a really good idea, I'll go and see him tonight or something~!" she yelled over her shoulder while running away.

Rangiku put her face in her hands and groaned soundlessly. Life was about much a scumbag as Shūhei was...

* * *

Hey,

Finally, I finished another chapter, yay~! ^^

Not much to say about it except for sorry for the delay :3

See ya next chapter!

SeireiteiFantasy


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